Final Fantasy 7: Indigo Children
by Izzia
Summary: The Turks & AVALANCHE are concerned by strange occurances in Mideel. People are dying and slipping into comas for no apparent reason. Reno is dragged into more than he bargained for...Chapter 12 up: Afterwards. COMPLETE.
1. Briefing

Final Fantasy 7: Indigo Children

_SUMMARY: It's set 3 years after ff7, it's not really inspired by Advent Children, as I've not seen enough of the trailers to know what the hell is going on in that film, but there _are_ children in this story, with freaky powers. _

_The Turks and AVALANCHE are concerned by mysterious events happening in Mideel…_

_(The main character is Reno (coz he's soooo great).) _

_(Obviously a lot of the characters and all the places in this fiction aren't products of my imagination. The copyright for the FF7 characters and places aren't mine. The other characters and the plot line are all of my imagination and I have copyright of them)_

_LANGUAGE WARNING: Cid Highwind is in this story as are the Turks; therefore there is a fair amount of bad language! _

1: Briefing

His deep alcohol fuelled sleep was rudely disturbed as his radio alarm clock blurted into action. He lay still for a moment, trying to ignore the thumping in his head and the furry taste in his mouth. He groaned as a song he really hated began. That was it, he would either have to move or have the annoying, but catchy tune in his head all day. His fingers rested on his electro-mag rod as he groped about for the clock, for one brief moment he felt like just electrocuting the bloody thing. But he let go of the rod and stretched a further few inches to turn the radio off. He collapsed back in his bed, sighing. As usual the red-haired Turk had got pissed out of his head the night before and remembered very little of it. For once there was no ditzy one-night stand lying beside him. His headache had now tripled from moving, and he had to be in at work at nine to receive a new briefing.

'Just a few more minutes in bed', he thought dimly, breathing heavily.

This time it was his PHS that woke him; he grabbed it from the bedside table, still half asleep.

"Hello?" He mumbled almost incoherently, his heavy eyes clamped closed.

"Reno, where the hell are you, you better have a good excuse as to why you're not here." A crisp feminine voice snapped at him.

"Elena?" He woke up properly now and sat up hazily, looking over to his clock. It was quarter past nine. "…Shit."

"Where are you?"

"Hold on, I'll be there in ten minutes." He hung up before she could say anymore; she never knew when to stop when she was fired up. He got up too quickly causing the blood to rush to his head making little white spots obscure his vision. He sat back down again and clutched his red head. "Shit." He repeated to himself. He never did know when to stop as far as alcohol was concerned. He ran his nimble, almost feminine, fingers through his messy feathered red hair; a few strands fell over his blue-green eyes. A thin tail of red hair came down his back from his otherwise shorter multi-length hair. He carefully undid the band that held the thin long hair together and re-gathered it to tie it up tighter and neater after sleep had ruffled it out of shape. Once he had dressed into his Turk uniform there was no time for breakfast, instead he grabbed an aging slice of take-out pizza he had found down the edge of his sofa the day before. He almost forgot his trade-mark sand-goggles that he rarely actually used, he scooped them up from the bedside table and placed them back on top of his head, bringing them down to his forehead, letting stray groups of hair flop over them as he attached the Electro rod to the ring on his belt.

The car ride from his flat to the new Shinra building in the centre of New Midgar was a short one, made shorter still with the rush hour over. He slammed his door closed and locked it, heading towards the skyscraper of a building wishing he had taken some aspirin before he left.

Rude and Elena did not look best pleased with him, before Elena opened that big mouth of hers he raised his hands, pushing past them towards Reeve's office

"I don't wanna talk about it!" He snapped, as Elena placed her hands on her hips and gave him a hard cold stare. Rude nodded in greeting, falling in beside Reno as he approached the office. At least he didn't have to worry about Rude having a go at him. That would require speaking, something he was too calm and collected to do very often.

Reno was too annoyed to flirt with the secretary outside the office, and she was too intelligent to want to talk to him. It was no secret that Reno was a womaniser.

"Go straight through." She said coldly, only looking up from her computer screen for a second. Rude nodded and went on in. Reno followed, holding his breath and bracing himself for angry reprimanding for being late. None of it came though, Reeve just seemed glad they had come at all.

"Good, good, you're all here." He muttered, smoothing his dark goatee beard. "There's an important errand I need you two to run. Rude, I have another task for you. If you could remain after I have briefed Reno and Elena please." He asked smoothly, to which Rude responded with a sharp nod. Reno collapsed into a leather backed chair once he realised he wasn't about to be shouted at or anything. He slouched into it lazily, ignoring Elena glowering at him. Reeve didn't notice, he was pacing the width of his fairly large office with a preoccupied frown.

"Reno, Elena, you will go to Mideel. Rumour has reached Midgar of strange goings on there. Many people have been mysteriously slipping into comas or just falling down dead. It may be nothing but rumour, if it is then I need proof that nothing out of the ordinary is happening there. If the rumours are true you will have to find out the cause for these deaths and odd occurrences. I cannot have whatever is happening in Mideel to happen anywhere the Shinra is." Reno furrowed his thin brows in confusion and sat forwards, clasping his delicate hands together.

"…Hang on… I thought Mideel was destroyed ages ago." Elena chuckled in amusement, shaking her blonde head.

"Oh you are thick Reno." He pulled a face at her caustic tone, but couldn't help but wonder what she meant by it.

"Mideel has been rebuilt. If you didn't spend your spare time drunk or watching porn you'd not be such a cloth head." He curled his lips in anger, but restrained himself from lashing out. Instead he sat back into the chair with a glower on his face. He'd get her back later, when Reeve wasn't watching. Elena had a smug look on her face for getting one over Reno and turned her attention back to Reeve.

"How are we getting there sir?" Reeve finally stopped pacing, he came to a stop beside his desk and perched on the edge of it, picking up some paperwork and leafing through it as he answered.

"I've contacted Cid from AVALANCHE. He'll pilot you there. Some select members of AVALANCHE are also travelling to Mideel to find out about how much truth these rumours have in them. As we have no reason to work against them any longer, Cloud and I agreed we would work together on this mission seeing as we both want to have the rumours cleared up. Four heads are better than two." Reno rolled his eyes; he hoped to Gaia that that spikey headed goodie two-shoes wouldn't be around to cramp his style. Cid was bad enough.

"Which of the AVALANCHE losers are we gunna have to put up with?" He sighed, he had to mentally prepare himself for whoever it was accompanying them. Reeve looked up briefly, looking daggers to him. Reno suppressed a yelp, Reeve never actually shouted at them or anything, he just had that way of looking at you that made you wish you had never opened your mouth.

"I don't know. That is up to Cloud Strife.

"Reno, you better review your attitude to AVALANCHE, they are a strong group who we could do well to ally ourselves with rather than make enemies with them again. If you stir anything up between them and the Turks you'll find yourself unemployed." The tone of his voice spoke harsher volumes than the actual words. Reno swallowed the lump in his throat down and nodded meekly.

"Good. You will be leaving this afternoon. Good luck." He said with finality to his voice. Reno quickly got to his feet and hurried out of the office, nodding as a farewell to Rude as he left. The click-click of Elena's high heels set his headache off again as she caught up with him. He groaned silently as she walked beside him with that smug look that she had worn earlier.

"What do _you_ want?" He sighed, looking down at her.

"Where are you going?" She demanded to know, her hands were on her hips and brows raised up high like she was looking down on him despite the fact he was a foot taller than her.

"Wouldn't you like to know." He mocked, intent on getting her back for earlier, but his groggy head was a little slow today; he doubted he could come up with any good come backs with such a banging headache. She poked his ribs, her eyes narrowed.

"Well, _I'm _going to get supplies for Mideel. Coming?" She almost sang in her high voice. He grimaced a little, but decided it was probably better if he had someone around him who was not considerably hung over and would remember everything they'd need.

"I s'pose I can put up with your face for a little while." She lightly punched his ribs this time, winding him a little. The small amount of moral fibre hidden deep within him made him reconsider punching her back. She was a woman after all.

They made their way out of the Shinra Head quarters to a high street of shops near by. Elena grabbed a basket and paced through the store, picking out healthy easy to eat things like fruit, nuts and bottled water. Reno stalked after her, sneaking in chocolate biscuits, crisps, cola and other such more edible foods. Once she finally realised the junk filling up her otherwise basket of healthiness she scowled at him.

"What's this shit doing in here? Good Gaia Reno! You're like a child!" She snapped at him, he gave her a cheeky grin and thanked her.

"Get your own basket and pay for your own rubbish." He sighed and went off to find himself a basket.

TBC...


	2. What? No minibar?

2: What? No mini-bar?

Reno was sprawled out on the grass near the runway of Midgar light air field. His head was resting on his black bag full of junk food, materia and potions. Elena was sitting beside him with her nose in a book as they waited for Cid and his highwind. Finally the tall pilot came, his goggles on top of his head and cigarette behind his ear.

"Get your skinny asses moving then!" He growled. Reno opened one eye and closed it again, cursing to himself that he had to work with AVALANCHE. Feeling a boot kick at his ribs, he sat up in annoyance, and saw it was Elena with the offending foot still jabbing him in the ribs.

"_All right!"_ He snapped harshly, grabbing his bag and ungracefully getting to his feet. Cid was already half way to the highwind, which was at the end of the runway. Reno decided sauntering was all he felt like doing at that moment; Elena whirled back to him when he was taking too long in getting to the highwind. She practically dragged him there, cursing under her breath.

He didn't think his day could get much worse, but once on board he came face to face with a cheeky grin belonging to a face he'd rather not look at.

"Oh great." He did not hide the sarcasm in his voice. Yuffie Kisaragi was one of his least favourite AVALANCHE members, her persistent chattering and self-important obnoxiousness really cut into him, especially since Elena had pointed out that Yuffie was really quite a lot like Reno. He couldn't see that personally, but it still pissed him off that Elena even attempted to compare them as being similar.

He pushed passed her, gripping onto his bag full of materia for his life. He couldn't trust her getting anywhere near materia, the bratty little thief.

"Hey Turkey! Good to see ya again!" She quipped, following him as he made his way to a spare seat.

"Piss off." He collapsed into the chair, hugging onto his bag and closing his heavy eyelids. Elena sniggered.

"Oh, poor widdle Reno's in a mood." She jested.

"Right, you son's of bitches, we're off." Cid shouted so everyone could hear. The blonde Turk ran off to watch as they took off; unfortunately Yuffie had travelled in the highwind enough to no longer be impressed by the take off. She sat at Reno's feet, her nimble fingers quietly un-tying his boot laces and re- tying them together without him realising. His headache had eased by now, but he was tired and in a bad mood for travelling with such unfavourable company without even Rude there to lighten his spirits. He remained in that seat for the entire two-hour flight; finally Yuffie had got bored with her attempts at winding him up and gone to talk to one of Cid's good looking co-pilots.

When the highwind landed, Elena came over to him and encouraged him to move, he stood up and took a step forward. His foot did not move as he had expected it to though, causing him to trip up, falling flat on his face. Bursts of laughter echoed around the deck, mostly coming from Yuffie, but Elena was enjoying herself too.

"Yeah, yeah, very clever." He manoeuvred his legs around and undid the laces, tying them up properly before getting to his feet and following every one out onto the green grass of the fields outside of the Mideel Forest where the town was situated.

"It's a half hour walk to Mideel." Cid said, looking off to the forest with a cigar in his mouth. "I'll see you suckers there." With that he strode off, his long legs taking him there twice as fast as anyone else could travel.

Reno was glad of his sleep in the Highwind, the headache had totally gone and his mood was lighter, despite the 'shoelaces tied together' trick he had just fallen victim of.

He walked between Elena and Yuffie breathing in the fresh country air as they walked along.

"There had better be some hot-honeys at Mideel." He said this more to himself than the women accompanying him, but saying it out loud would be a good opportunity to get them back for the bad day he had had.

"You think with your dick far too much Reno." Elena said, staring at him intently.

"Well, he hasn't got enough brain cells to think with his head, so I suppose his dick is the next best thing." Yuffie chided, the feminist side of her shining through. Elena and Yuffie continued, actually getting along with one another now they had found a mutual dislike of Reno's womanising tendencies.

"I doubt his dick is much bigger." Yuffie burst out laughing, to which Reno narrowed his eyes, smirking a little

"Yeah, yeah, girls. You both know you want a piece of me." The women just looked at each other and laughed harder.

By the time they reached the newly built town of Mideel it was dusk. The quiet town had been rebuilt a little further off from the lifestream that had destroyed the town three years previously. It was much larger than it had been before, sustaining a large population.

Cid had already checked into a hotel and was in the bar on his second whisky. Reno was the first to get to the reception desk; he leant over the desk casually, grinning widely at the brunette behind the desk.

"Hey baby. Do you have room at the inn?" He brushed his hands through his messy red hair as she answered.

"Er…yes. Do you have any preferences on what room you would like to stay in?" He licked his lips and looked up to the ceiling

"Yeah, I'll have whatever your favourite room is." He smiled to himself, proudly thinking; 'Damn Reno, you're smooth.'

"Certainly." He mistook her smirk for a flirty smile, so smiled back, fluttering his eyelashes. "How long are you staying?"

He inhaled, and clicked his tongue

"Oh, well, I don't know yet. That depends on if I meet someone special who might hold me here for a while doesn't it?" She typed something into her computer.

"What's your name and contact details?" He chuckled softly.

"You're a fast mover, I like that in a woman. My number is.." He gave her his PHS number, and name and she handed him a key.

"Enjoy your stay Sir." He clutched the keys and leant further over the desk, looking straight into her dark eyes.

"I think I will." With a sly smile he pushed himself off the desk and sauntered towards the stairs, looking back at her before he went up. She gave him a sickly smile and flirty wave. He nodded to himself in self-satisfaction as he climbed the stairs. 'Babe Magnet.' He smiled smugly and took a look at the number on the key ring. Number ten. If this was her favourite room it would probably be really nice, girls always went for the nicest rooms. He unlocked it and swung the door open. His jaw dropped. If this was the best room then what were the others like? The wallpaper was peeling off, mould grew in patches on the ceiling, the bed didn't look like it would hold his weight, let alone the combined weight of himself and the women he planned to bring back to his room. He'd just have to make sure he narrowed his 'babeometer' down to thin light women. 'Shouldn't be too bad.'

He dumped his bag down on the rickety chair in the corner and collapsed into the bed, "Ummff.." the bed was less than comfortable, springs stuck into his back and the mattress was lumpy. He was pretty sure that the sheets hadn't been cleaned in a long while either. But that would just make him feel more at home; he couldn't remember the last time his own sheets had been cleaned. Deciding that actually, he'd rather not spend too long on the bed for fear of backache, he got up. He picked up his bag and sat in the chair, which was mildly more comfortable than the bed. He undid the clasps and groped about for some biscuits, walking was hungry business. He found the biscuits all right, but there was distinct lack of orb like shapes as he searched. He spilt the contents of his bag out on the floor to be certain he wasn't just accidentally missing them. All his materia was gone, his jaw dropped and eyes narrowed. "The little bitch.." He jumped up and wrenched his door open angrily, eyes scanning about for signs of where Yuffie might be staying. Elena came out of a room

"Where's the ninja brat?" He demanded angrily, clenching his fists. Elena pointed to the door with the number three on it, her brows pushed together in puzzlement. She opened her mouth to say something, he only caught

"Don't go…" before he reached it. He didn't bother knocking, instead storming straight in shouting

"KISARAGI! Where's…" He was stopped short when he saw that she was undressing, standing there only in her bra and beige shorts that were always relatively near falling off her anyway due to the top button being missing. His brows rose and he pursed his lips together, whistling softly. He muttered a "Sorry" and darted out, leaning against her door, biting down on his lower lip and smiling mischievously at Elena.

"I was about to say don't go in, she said she was going to get changed." Reno hadn't minded going in at all.

"Mmm…she's hot for a brat." Elena scowled at him and crossed her arms. The door opened suddenly causing Reno to fall back into the room. Yuffie caught him under the arms before he fell to the floor and pushed him back onto his feet. To his disappointment she had got changed into a black zip up top. A sudden pain erupted at his cheek; Yuffie had slapped him hard with a black look on her face.

"I said I was sorry." Yuffie just shook her head. "Yeah, _anyway,_ the reason I came in was because you're busted, Give me my materia back." He thrust his hand forward, palm up, his lips pressed together in renewed anger.

"I'll consider them as payment for not knocking first and glimpsing a little too much of the girl of your dreams. Dreams being the only place you'll get to see me as exposed as you saw just then." Reno tsked and shook his head.

"I want that materia back brat." He spat, unclasping his Electro-Mag rod from his belt and turning it on. "This is how farmers get their cows to do as they want, fitting that I'll use it on you if you don't give them back."

"Ummff." She had slapped him again; he rubbed the sore spot on his cheek and tightened his grip on the electro rod. "Well, looks like I'll have to teach this little cow a lesson." He had set the rod on a low dose, just enough to stun her a little. She screeched out as the electric bolt jabbed at her. He realised that suddenly her shuriken was in her hand, she thrust a blade dangerously close to his throat, he gulped as he felt the blade push into his skin. At that moment Cid came in, wondering where everyone had got to.

"What the fuck? Now, now children. These are _not _fucking toys!" He grabbed Yuffie's shuriken without harming Reno's throat and grabbed Reno's weapon as the redhead checked for blood where the blade had pushed against his throat.

"Now. What's all this idiocy about?" He demanded like an annoyed father.

"She stole my materia." Reno jabbed a finger in Yuffie's direction.

"He's a pervert. He came into my room when I was undressing." Cid sighed in annoyance

"For the love of Gaia; GROW UP YOU LITTLE SHITS!…

"Yuffie give him back his materia"

"But-" She interrupted, Cid's angry expression stopped her short though.

"There will be plenty of cloth-headed materia owners, who you don't work with, to steal materia off in Mideel." Reno flashed her a superior smile, as she reluctantly handed back his green orbs.

"Where's my Poison materia?" He demanded, seeing it missing. She sighed and fished the orb out from her pocket, thrusting it into his hand violently. "Not so hard now was it?" He fake-smiled. "I can use this on you later if anymore goes missing." He added, Cid shot him a threatening look.

"And you, Reno, get a girlfriend and quit bugging women who are well out of your league for Gaia's sake." His smug grin faded, it was Yuffie's turn to flash him a jeering smile.

"I'm going back down to the bar, perhaps we can start asking about these rumours whilst drunken tongues run free." He disappeared off, leaving the other three in Yuffie's room. It wasn't until now that Reno noticed Yuffie's room was ten times nicer than his one. The wallpaper was new, the polished floorboards had an ornate Wutai rug in the centre and the bed was twice the size of his with clean sheets and a multitude of comfy cushions. She had two sturdy armchairs and a mini bar. He didn't care about the other things, what pissed him off was that she had a mini bar and he didn't.

"Elena has your room got a mini bar?" He asked as Yuffie pushed them out so she could lock her door.

"Have you drunk everything in yours already? You're pathetic. No you can't have anything from mine. You _do_ know that the stuff there isn't free don't you?" Reno hung his head muttering angry words under his breath.

When they got to the bar he asked Cid quietly if he had a mini bar in his room. Cid gave him an odd look.

"We're at the bar now kid. What do you want with my mini bar stuff?" Reno shook his head and quietly told him the state of his room so the girls wouldn't hear. Cid sniggered.

"I don't think the receptionist took kindly to your flirting boy. Women have this tendency to get pissed off with womanisers. You got what you deserve." He turned back around and scanned the fairly empty bar. It was still early.

Reno ordered a double shot of whisky and downed it, asking for another.

"Slow down with those kid. We've got work to do remember." Reno was beginning to get pissed off with being called a kid, He was twenty-five. Ok, maybe he looked a year or two younger to some, but he certainly was not a child. He went over to the table where Yuffie and Elena were sitting, not talking to one another. He scanned the room, making a mental check of everyone in there. An old man with a wooden pipe was nestled in one corner, Reno couldn't tell whether he was asleep or just naturally that slumped. 'Mental note: make sure I die before I get old…Hell, of course I'll die before I get like that, I'm a bloody Turk, I'm lucky to have seen twenty-five.' A young couple were kissing at the other end of the room and a middle-aged man sat at the bar along from Cid. The only ones that stood out as remotely out of place was a group of about six kids, all staring at them intently. The eldest looked about his age, the youngest looked about the same age as Barret's kid, Marlene. It was still early enough for kids to be in the bar because food was still being served. But unless the guy at the bar was their parent there was no responsible adult looking after them, which was law in Midgar bars if not Mideel bars.

"What do you think to those kids?" He leant over the table to ask Elena, she had seen them too, but was clearly as clueless about them as he was. He shrugged and drank his drink as slowly as he could; he finished in a couple of minutes rather than a second.

TBC...


	3. Jennin

3

Jennin

The bar had got nicely full by mid-evening, the children were still there, although they were less occupied by staring at Reno, Elena and Yuffie by now. Reno had tried his hardest to limit the amount of drinks he consumed. He was now slumped over the table; everything was spinning. There were seven empty glasses in front of him that the barmaid had not kept up with and taken away yet.

Cid was talking to a drunk guy and Elena was asking a woman who had come in alone about the mysterious deaths:

"Oh, yes. It's terrible. My uncle Brendon just never woke up about three weeks ago, he's still alive, but in a deep coma. People are saying it's Mako poisoning from the lifestream." That was perfectly possible, the town was quite close to a high amount of Mako energy. She wasn't sure exactly how close it was. She didn't see the lifestream when they had come in earlier, and planned to check out the distance tomorrow.

Yuffie was talking to another couple, who didn't think Mideel was close enough to the lifestream for it to be Mako poisoning.

"Besides, We've lived here ever since Mideel was rebuilt and not been effected. There are people dying here who just stopped by for a holiday or visiting relatives. It's The Children I tell you, The Children."

"The children?" Yuffie had asked. The woman nodded, wide eyed.

"They live somewhere on the island, No one knows where. But they come to Mideel a lot, whenever they come, people die or disappear. People die when they're not here too." Yuffie didn't really understand what she meant, her husband saw her puzzled look and realised Yuffie was an outlander who didn't know anything of recent events.

"The Children are not the kin of anyone in Mideel that we know of. They just came here about a year ago. More come all the time. At first there were only a few who rarely came into Mideel. But recently they come in gangs and cause trouble, stealing things and beating people up. They must have a hell of a lot of matreria kept at where ever it is they live, they're really powerful.

"Some are clearly not children, some are adults, you see that group over there, they are some of The Children. Many call them 'The Indigo Children.'" He gestured towards the kids still sat at the far end of the room.

"Everyone's scared of them and their magic. I just dunno." He shook his head, staring at them. "They're just kids, the eldest I've seen is not much older than that one." He nodded towards the one who looked the same age as Reno; about twenty five.

"They're mostly just kids. How can they be the one's causing the trouble?" Yuffie couldn't understand it either. She thanked the couple for their information and returned to the table. She jogged Reno, who sat up suddenly, yelling a muffled "…Buffy!" looking confused as to where he was. She retold Elena and Reno what she had found out before going over to Cid who was now alone, and told him about it too.

"Myeah, that's what a few people have been saying. Others reckon it's Mako poisoning."

"Which one do you think it is?"

"How the hell do I know?" Yuffie shrugged meekly. "I reckon we should just hang on here and try and get some solid evidence that's it's these Children causin' the trouble. Everyone I've spoken to has no proof it's the Children stealing and killing. Often people can put the blame for shit like this on strangers who scare 'em and they become blind to what's really goin' on."

The music was suddenly put on louder and tables and chairs were pulled out from the middle where there was a polished wooden dance floor. A group of drunken friends started dancing and Yuffie went back to Reno and Elena, her eyes falling onto The Children. The guy was right, they were just kids, prating about. The one's old enough to drink had started dancing. Reno tapped his feet to the beat, unaware that Elena and Yuffie were there at all, or the mission. To him he was just spending another night pissed out of his skull so he didn't have to face up to how much he hated his life and the things he had done in the past that he was less than proud of. For now these things were forgotten and the music took him away to another place. He stumbled over to the dance floor. Elena cursed that she hadn't brought a camera as he danced. But Yuffie had to admit; he was a good dancer despite his drunken state.

"Hey! Reno's binge drinking and like of the ladies could just work in our favour for once!" Elena exclaimed as she saw him dance close to the older member of the group of children who looked to be in her mid twenties.

"Yeah, but do you reckon he'll question her? If he does he'll probably forget what she gives away."

"Let's get closer to them." Elena suggested, getting up. They went and sat on a table on the edge of the dance floor near where Reno and the girl were dancing. The girl seemed just as out of it as he was, dancing energetically, and closer to him than Elena or Yuffie liked. If these Children were dangerous, they didn't want Reno getting on the wrong side of any of them.

For every miss placed hand Reno gave to the girl she gave one back as they danced ever closer to one another.

"What's your name?" Reno slurred.

"Jennin. Yours?"

"Reno." She had messy brown hair that tumbled down her shoulders, her form was slim, but she wore baggy trousers and a t-shirt that was neither tight nor loose. A multitude of black and brown leather, and silver bracelets hung around her wrists, three black necklaces and one delicate silver one hung around her neck.

And _man_ could she dance, or at least Reno thought so. She wasn't the usual type he'd go for; she was clearly not a girly girl, yet she retained feminine features despite her almost tomboyish ways of moving and holding herself. He had never met a girl as forward as she; he had trouble keeping up with her. She was almost like the female version of himself, _almost._

"Well, you're cute Reno." She smiled, running her fingers through his feathered red hair, making shivers go up his spine. Her scent filled his nose and her soft touch made his skin prickle. He'd never felt this strongly for a girl before, it was an odd feeling as much as a nice feeling. Soon they were embracing one another, she softly kissed his pale cheeks, moving round to his left ear, softly nibbling the lobe and gently pulled at his small looped earring with her teeth. His breathing was disjointed as she did so, his eyes closed and a soft smile was on his lips.

"Gawd this is gross!" Yuffie exclaimed as the music had picked up a little, they had been dancing for hours and were one of last on the dance floor, Elena had drifted off to sleep. Just as she was about to call it a night, the other five children went over to Jennin and Reno. Jennin gently pushed Reno away from her and turned to her friends. To Yuffie's annoyance she couldn't hear what was said and hoped Reno was sensible enough to remember what was said between them.

He didn't want her to pull away from him, he tried to latch on, but she firmly placed him a foot or so away from her, and seemingly stared at those kids she was with.

Something was said, but not out loud, unless Reno really was so drunk that he couldn't hear or see lips move anymore.

A meaningful silence passed where Jennin looked at a boy of about fourteen in front of her like he was speaking. She nodded to the boy and looked back to Reno.

"I've gotta go babe." He grabbed her hand softly and pleaded that she stayed.

"I have a room here you can stay over the night with me." She shook her head and kissed his cheek lightly.

"Stick around Mideel and maybe I'll take you up on that offer when I know you better. Here, have this for now. I want it back mind, but see it as my claim on you. While it's in your possession you're not to look at another girl if you want to get to know me better, _you know what I mean_." With that she and her pint-sized friends were gone. He stood in the middle of the dance floor, his heart beating hard and an electric feeling pumping around his body. He looked down at what she had given him. It was a necklace with a finely linked silver chain, there was a small pink orb encased in a thin silver wire wrapped delicately around it. He pressed it to his cheek and closed his eyes. A hand rested on his shoulder, and for a moment he thought it was Jennin come back to him, but it was Elena.

"Are you ok?" She asked, concerned, Reno was never usually phased by a girl. He nodded and attached the necklace around his neck.

"Just peachy thanks." He murmured, suddenly realising how tired he was.

"Did you find out any information?" Reno didn't understand what she was talking about, forgetting what Yuffie had said about The Children earlier.

"Wha'?" Elena rolled her eyes.

"Who was the girl? Where does she live? Why are seven year olds hanging around with her until midnight? Who and where are their parents? Anything?" Reno shrugged

"She's called Jennin." He almost whispered, savouring her name, letting it roll off his tongue. He pushed passed her, not in the mood for talking; he went straight up to his room and collapsed into his bed. He didn't notice how uncomfortable it was, all he could think about was Jennin.

TBC...


	4. Attacked from both sides!

4

Attacked from both sides!

A knock came at his door the next morning; he sat up, running his fingers through his hair, messed up with sleep.

"Myeah?" The door opened, he had forgotten to lock it. Elena came in and sat on the bed beside him. He lay back down feeling surprisingly good considering the quantity of alcohol he had consumed the night before. She reached out to his collarbone area and took the pendant of the necklace Jennin had given him into her fingers. He snatched it back, holding onto it and frowning.

"Get off it!" Elena recoiled at his over reaction to her gesture.

"All right! Don't get so testy!"

He realised his naked torso was showing and drew the covers up high around him. "That looked like Independent materia to me, do you know what it is?" She was right; it did look somewhat like Independent materia, very small, but still resembled materia. He didn't know what it was though; it definitely was not one he'd come across before.

"It's just a necklace!" He snapped, still clutching it. Elena shrugged and stood up.

"We're having breakfast then going to find out if the lifestream is close enough to cause Mako poisoning." He nodded and waited for her to close the door behind her as she left until climbing out of bed and getting changed into his Turk uniform.

He whistled a song as he went down to the bar where breakfast was being served, and sat next to Elena, bopping up and down to the song in his head, happier than he'd been in a long time. Yuffie frowned and asked Elena what was up with him, to which Elena shrugged and dug into her cereal. Reno helped himself to cornflakes, coca pops and Lucky Stars all in one bowl, ignoring his colleagues glares and he shovelled spoon loads into his mouth and let stray milk drip down his chin.

"So…did anyone find out anything last night?" He asked through a mouthful of cereal. Only Yuffie understood what he'd said, as she too was someone who talked whether her mouth was full or not.

"Yeah, no thanks to you!"

"What did you find out then?" He asked when she didn't elaborate. This time his mouth had less filling it so both Cid and Elena also understood what he said.

"Your newest girlfriend seems to be a member of a group called 'The Indigo Children'. Town-folk have been saying that things go missing whenever they come into the town, and people die mysteriously or slip into comas." Elena said, brushing her fingers through her short blonde hair as she had forgotten to bring a hairbrush with her.

"Well, they said that happens when the Children aren't in Mideel as well." Yuffie added.

"So they don't live in Mideel then?" Reno asked, his brows pushed together, and song in his head forgotten for now. Cid shook his head in disbelief

"You son of a bitch! You were dancing hip on hip with one of 'em for a good four hours yesterday and you didn't even find out where they live?"

"What did the girl say to her friends before she left?" Yuffie asked between mouthfuls of Lucky Stars. Reno thought on it for a while before answering.

"They didn't actually say anything… it was weird, but I guess I didn't notice it at the time, being drunk and all…but yeah. They sort of looked at each other like something was being said even though not even their lips moved. Jennin nodded like she was responding to something that the boy said and told me she had to go." He took another mouthful of cereal.

"Yeah right Reno, you were pissed out of your skull last night. You must have just not heard what they said in your drunken stupor." Elena rebuked, angry at Reno's persistent drinking always getting in the way of the job in hand. Reno opened his mouth in annoyance, a little hurt by her words. He quickly snapped his mouth closed again as half chewed cereal started to escape from his open mouth. 'I wasn't _that _drunk.' He thought to himself, not bothering to waste energy on arguing with his blonde-headed fellow Turk.

"_Whatever!_ So Turkey found nothing out then. _Great! _Well, that 'Child', or whatever it is she claims to be, gave you a trinket last night. What was that all about?" Yuffie asked, pushing her empty bowl away from her and sitting back, her hands clasped together and placed at the back of her head as she lazily leant back in the chair. Reno clasped his thin fingers around the pendant defensively and snapped;

"Nothing! Mind your own business brat." Cid had also finished his breakfast; he stood up with a glare in his eye that let everyone know how pissed off he was beginning to get with them.

"I'll meet you outside in five minutes." He growled, spinning on his heel and storming out of the bar.

"Ooo-eee! Who got outta the wrong side of the bed this morning then?" Reno joked once Cid was out of earshot. Yuffie punched his arm and stood to go as well.

"Oh Yuf, babe, don't get mad at me. I know I've probably just gone and shattered your dreams of one day getting with me, but my heart is set on one woman now; get used to it!" He snickered as she narrowed her eyes and left in the same vain as Cid had done. Elena just glared at him for a moment before leaving. He shrugged and finished up his cereal.

It took twenty minutes to walk to the lifestream most of the way through muggy forest, by which time Reno had managed to wind Yuffie up beyond reasonable levels.

"I'd beat you in a fight any day, you red-headed JERK!" She screamed at him, to which he only sniggered in response. Cid looked daggers at them and growled

"How old are you Yuffie?" Her Reno-induced bad mood lifted for a moment as she tried to figure out why in hell he was asking that question.

"You know how old I am Cid!" When he glowered at her harder for not answering the question she muttered,

"Nineteen." Cid nodded

"And at what age does one get promoted into adulthood?"

"Eighteen." She mumbled, looking down at the forest floor, already guessing his point.

"Reno, how old are you?" Reno felt he was old enough not be spoken to like a child so chose not to respond.

"He's twenty five." Reno shot Elena a dark look for that, to which she stuck out her tongue, she was as fed up with Yuffie and Reno as Cid was.

"ACT LIKE YOUR FUCKING AGE'S THEN!" Yuffie did not take kindly to being shouted at, or wound up; she'd had enough. One minute she was there, walking as far from Reno as she could, the next moment she was totally gone.

"Er… where's the brat?" Reno dared to ask. Elena looked 'round and could not see her either. She ran over to Cid and told him that the ninja was missing. He stopped and looked around them, staring through the trees for any movement before shrugging and continuing to walk.

"She's just admitted she's an adult, she can do as she pleases. If you ask me I reckon she's off materia hunting."

Suddenly they came to a clearing, littered ruins of the old Mideel were scattered about in the bushes and on the overgrown paths. The pool of glowing green shone an odd light onto the group's faces. Even Reno could not help but inhale in wonder. It was beautiful. Birds chattered not far away, other than this it was silent, and totally peaceful. Reno sat down a few metres away from the pool and sat back, enjoying the warm feeling pulsating from the pool and the peace and quiet here.

"Well.." Elena sighed, sitting next to Reno. "I think it's too far from the new Mideel to cause Mako poisoning." It was at least a mile away from the town, maybe more, it would have been unlikely Mako poisoning would have set in after only three years living close to the lifestream. She watched as Cid nosed about looking for signs of unusual activity, she didn't know what he was expecting to find.

A bang rose up from the forest near by and Cid suddenly cried out, clutching his upper arm with a pained grimace on his face. Reno sat up straight, looking around to see where the sound had come from; Elena went over to Cid to see what was wrong. Trickles of dark red blood found their way past Cid's hand held at the wound.

"I got shot! Get down you fools! Take cover!" Reno unclasped his Electro-Mag rod from the hoop on his belt and took the mid-length leather strap attached to the end of the rod. The strap had a hook-clasp, which he attached to a custom-made black leather band around his wrist with a hoop fastened upon it. This meant that even if he accidentally dropped the rod, it would be easily retrievable as its leather strap was secured to his wristband.

Dark shapes were moving through the forest, he gulped and threw Elena one of his Restore materia's he had taken with him, it was a weak one, but it would have to do. He gripped the handle of his Electro rod tightly and stalked in the direction the sound had come from while Elena sorted Cid out.

"Ummpff" He doubled over as a long wooden staff had been whacked into his chest, he stumbled to his knees as the staff was swung round and pummelled into the back of his legs.

"This place is not for apes. It is for the superior's; for us." He looked up to see the face of a boy not much older than sixteen with a sly smile on his lips. Reno got to his feet and jabbed the Rod into the boys flesh in one quick movement, having set the setting at strong-stun. The boy's body convulsed as it hit, he stumbled backwards, the smile replaced by a look of surprise. More gunshots echoed around the hollowed out area, he quickly ran in the direction it had come from, keen to not have another of his friends shot at. More children emerged from the forest, clutching assorted weapons. It seemed that the only thing that the weapons had in common was the large number of materia slots, all being used to their full capacity. The children wore those green orbs everywhere, in among clothes and makeshift armour, on pendants, in rings, everywhere. 'If the ninja brat hadn't ran off, she'd have a field day with all this materia around.' He thought to himself grimly as a burly young man with a sword swiped at him, he had to dodge it fast and jab back with the electro-rod even quicker, running passed his fallen form to avoid having to dodge the sword again.

A little girl suddenly came into his path, he screeched to a halt and stared at her. She was smiling broadly, her black hair tied neatly back in pigtails. He didn't know what to do, he wasn't about to electrocute such a small and cute little kid and she seemed to lack any weapon. A glow suddenly formed around her, the kind of glow someone has when casting a spell, he cursed and ran in the opposite direction, but it was too late, the spell hit him, pushing him to the ground. A loud sound reverberated around his ears, this was a very powerful spell, but he felt nothing of it, it just swirled around him, the worst it did had been knocking him to the ground. When the spell finally came to a stop (she had a W-Magic materia on, so it cast twice) the girl looked more than annoyed that Reno was fine. She came up close to him and took a good look, her eyes falling onto the pendant Jennin have given him. She yelped and ran off once she saw it.

Scratching his head, he stood, 'what was that all about?' he asked himself as he continued to jog towards the direction the gunshots had come from.

The shots had stopped, he could hear sounds of commotion coming from the clearing where the lifestream was, but other than that all was silent.

The silence was broken with another gunshot, this time frighteningly close; a hot, sharp pain erupted through his side, making him want to throw up. He doubled over and clutched his side, feeling warm liquid ooze over his hands.

"Shit!" He muttered as he forced himself to look down at the wound and see how bad it really was. "SHIT!" It was bad. He stumbled to his feet and pushed his way through the trees towards the clearings to his friends and, more importantly, the Restore materia he had given Elena. Pain throbbed at his side and nausea swept over him in waves. He finally stumbled into the clearing where ten or more of the Children were gathered, Elena was casting a fire spell, her cheek was cut and clothes bloodied, Cid was fighting five of the children with a worrying limp and uncharacteristic lack of accuracy that screamed out that Cid was badly hurt.

Elena's fire spell was simply absorbed by the four children she had cast it on, all four began glowing as Elena desperately searched her pockets for more materia. Another gunshot echoed in the air, Reno fell to his knees as his white shirt was drenched in his own blood. The bullet had gone straight through his other side, entering through the back and almost re-appearing at his front. From the ground where he was desperately trying to get up he could see Elena being completely consumed by the four spells the children had cast on her before she had located her other materia. Two ice spells; a fire and a bolt had hit her almost at the same time. She was slumped on the ground, totally out.

"Cid!" Reno had meant to shout, but the words came out almost as a whisper as his vision blurred and another bullet soared through his skin, this time hitting his shoulder. He collapsed fully, only just aware of distant shouts and the ceasing of the gunfire. A metallic taste frothed up in his mouth, he was dying, and he knew it; the blood spilled out from the corner of his mouth and dripped down his chin. Something was going on around him; he could barely make anything out anymore. He was cold, so cold; sleep beckoned him, sleep he knew he'd never wake from. Darkness washed over him as he lay on the floor, lying unconscious in a puddle of his own blood, a puddle that was fast becoming a pool.

TBC...


	5. Saved

5

Saved

"STOP IT!" Cid's knees had given way just as the older girl came into the clearing and ordered the Children to stop their attack. Poison racked through his body after a ten tear old had cast a Bio spell on him. He was all right for now, but fighting caused him to loose the precious energy his body needed to keep fighting the poison pumping through him. He recognised the girl who had finally got the relentless kids to cease their attacks. It was Reno's friend Jennin. All the younger kids stared at her as she ran over to Reno's bloodied form. She crouched beside him and took his pulse. He was barely alive, but as long as his heart was still faintly beating she could revive him. Her nimble fingers made deft work of quickly unbuttoning his blood soaked shirt in order for her to touch bare skin. A glow surrounded her, brighter than any Cid had seen before, the children near him gasped, their jaws wide as they watched the glow grow so bright that all could be seen of the redhead and his newest love interest was a blinding sphere of light.

After what seemed like a few minutes, but was actually only a few seconds, the glow subsided. Jennin's eyes were barely open; she slouched beside Reno, breathing heavily. Reno seemed to stir, twitching a little at first, then slightly moving his arms. A few minutes passed before he sat bolt upright, blinking profusely. His eyes were wide and mouth open as he realised he was awake; whatever dream he had been having was gone.

Something wasn't right, he looked down at his body; his unbuttoned white shirt was almost entirely red and soaking wet with the red liquid. He was sitting in a whole pool of the stuff. Then he remembered. It was his blood, he should be dead, why wasn't he dead? He wasn't even in pain.

"Reno…" Jennin muttered beside him, looking like it was her who was close to death. He gasped and was overcome with concern for her. Grabbing her shoulders lightly, he looked into her half closed eyes, searching for an answer to what he should do to make her better. Something hard in his pocket pressed against his leg. A potion. He grabbed it quickly and unscrewed the cap, pressing the bottle to Jennin's lips and softly requesting her to drink from it. She complied, drinking slowly to start with, then more deeply as strength returned to her. Yet, it had only been a potion, it was not strong enough to even nearly fully cure her. She got to her shaky feet and stared at the children before her.

"I am weak, so I will speak rather than communicate in the usual way in front of such company." The children who had been further away gathered in close to her, watching her with unblinking eyes.

"What is the meaning of this attack? Has word not reached you? Have you not come home in the last twelve hours?" Her voice was a little shaky, but seemed to hold much authority with it. The eldest boy, the one who had the sword, stepped forwards. He said nothing, but Jennin seemed to think he had.

"You are a fool Jez. A fool. They were doing nothing to the lifestream that would harm us. Dale has told all the Children that no more attacks on the Inferiors should happen like this without his consent, Reno would have died if I hadn't intervened.

"For one, we need as many Inferiors as possible alive for the tests. Secondly, this morning Dale gave orders that under no circumstances is the redheaded Turk to be harmed.

"I came here to find him minutes away from death! Dale will not be happy with this. I am not happy with this. The Red-head is mine! All of you…" She glared at the boy she had called Jez

"Shut up! Do not interrupt me again Jez. You should have been there; if you had been you would have known. All of you go back home. Go on. GO!" The children yelped and ran off, Jez remained for a little while, still saying nothing.

"Whatever Jez. _Whatever._ Leave me alone now." With that the boy ran off into the forest.

Reno's attention had been partially distracted by Elena's unconscious form and Cid's pale face. He rushed over to Elena first and checked her pulse. She was alive, but would not stir when he tried to rouse her. He turned back to Jennin, who had sat down near his patch of spilt blood that had not yet started to dry, even in the heat of midday.

"Can you cure her?" he asked, she shook her head.

"I am exhausted from healing you. I cannot even heal that scratch." She gestured to the small cut on Elena's cheek. Reno swore under his breath, his Restore materia would be too weak to wake her from this, and he had no Phoenix Down with him.

"What materia did you use to bring me back? I was sure I was a gonner. But the bullet wounds are gone; it's as if I had never been shot at all. Was it a Full Cure? Those are really rare." He chuckled to himself as he mentally added 'Yuffie would squeal with delight if she knew there was Full Cure materia here.'

"Something like that." Jennin mumbled, standing up now. "I must go." He didn't even have time to thank her for saving his life, she was gone too fast. He sighed and looked over to Cid.

"Are you ok?" Cid nodded.

"I'm poisoned. Let's hope there's a materia or item shop in Mideel. I need some Antidote or Heal materia." Reno nodded and shrugged off his blood-soaked shirt, it felt horrible against his skin. He unclipped his weapon from his wristband and re-attached it to his belt. Elena wasn't waking up anytime soon so Reno picked her sleeping form up in a fireman's lift and carried her to the edge of the clearing. Cid followed, limping slightly.

'I hope you've not ended up the way I almost did Yuffie.' Reno thought to himself; as they slowly made their way back to Mideel he found himself surprised at his concern for the whereabouts and safely of the young ninja. 'Geezz Reno, you're goin' soft in your old age.'

He needn't have worried over Yuffie though; she was back at the hotel bar by the time they got back with not a scratch on her.

"Yuffie! Thank Gaia you're ok!" Reno exclaimed as he came in after putting Elena in her bed to encourage her to wake up naturally; Phoenix Down was expensive, waking naturally was free. Yuffie screwed up her nose

"What? Did you just sound glad to see me? Aw, Reno, I'm afraid I don't feel that way about you. So put a shirt on and forget about getting with me." She flashed him a toothy grin. He stuck out his tongue

"You keep telling yourself you're not mad for me and maybe one day you'll believe it…but nah, seriously Yuffie, where did you go?" He sat down opposite to her, drumming his fingers on the surface of the table.

"You and Cid were being jerks. I decided I was better off alone. From all that dried blood about your person I think it was just as well I did go off." He leant back in his chair and sighed, she was right there. "What happened to you Reno?" Her voice sounded strange in its seriousness. He explained everything to her, the Children, Cid getting poisoned, Elena being knocked out, him being inches away from death.

A strange feeling had risen into her stomach at hearing about Reno's near-death experience. Ok, he was a complete jerk most of the time, but she couldn't help kinda liking him when his rare moments of humanity shone through, and he _was_ kinda cute-looking.

She pushed away the feeling in all it's grossness and started re-telling him what she had been up to.

-------------------------------------------------

"Reno, how old are you?" He ignored Cid, looking off into the forest.

"He's twenty five." Yuffie saw Reno give Elena a dark look for that, to which she stuck out her tongue.

"ACT LIKE YOUR FUCKING AGE'S THEN!" Yuffie did not take kindly to being shouted at, or wound up; she'd had enough.

Slipping away had been easy, the Turks and Cid, blind as they were, did not notice as she darted behind a large tree that had a thick bush growing at it's base. She peeked through the dark foliage as Reno's impish little face looked around with a puzzled look.

"Er… where's the brat?" Yuffie narrowed her eyes 'I am _not_ a brat!' she thought to herself in anger. Elena looked 'round but was as short-sighted as her co-worker and failed to see Yuffie crouching down among the dark foliage of the bush behind the large tree. She watched as Elena ran over to Cid and told him that the ninja was missing. Cid stopped and looked around them, staring through the trees for any movement before shrugging and continuing to walk.

"She's just admitted she's an adult, she can do as she pleases. If you ask me I reckon she's off materia hunting."

A sly grin rippled across Yuffie's face 'Good idea pilot. I think I might just do that.' Once she was sure the group were far enough away she stalked though the forest silently, her ninja skills did come in handy sometimes. She had no idea how long she silently traversed through the forest, but sometime later she stopped. Loud chirping came from above her. She looked up, vaguely recognising the birdcall. Was that….? A phoenix nest? Excitement fuelled her as she climbed the tree with deft agility. Phoenix down could get her a few bob; it was expensive stuff nowadays. She perched on the branch high above the ground and sneaked along it towards the nest. To her disappointment, the birds were not Phoenix chicks, but Jay chicks. Jay down had no magical properties and therefore could earn her no money. Just as she was about to clamber down from the tree she heard voices.

Through the trees foliage she could make out a group of about eight children who had stopped near to the tree.

"Shhhh…Is that a Phoenix call?"

"No you twirp, it's a Jay call! Geez you're a cloth head!" Yuffie scowled at that, Jays _did_ sound a lot like Phoenix birds.

"I need a rest!" A younger sounding voice demanded. Another voice sighed loudly.

"Oh All right!" Nothing was said for a moment, the chitter of the jays in the near by nest filled Yuffies ears for the time being.

"When is the big test happening?" A young voice broke the silence.

"Dunno. Dale said probably next week."

"That's _ages_ away! Vince said some Shinra scum have come to Mideel. He reckons they're onto us."

"Shu' up Danny! Even if Shinra scum were 'ere they're not powerful like us Children. They're the Inferior. It don't matter if they're onto us coz we can crush 'em like worms." A girls voice resounded in a cockney accent, another little feminine voice giggled at that and repeated in a small, but gleeful voice

"Like worms! He, he, he!"

"I don't like it. Ok, they're lower down the evolutionary scale than we are, but we have no right to be killing people like this." There was a long pause, Yuffie dug her little finger into her ear to dig out the earwax, was she hearing them right?

"Well, Dale, Nyra, Jak and Jennin say tha' if we don't kill 'em, they'll kill us just like they did with the Ancients. We're different from them, we're more powerful, and they're scared of us so they'll kill us. Dale says it's kill or be killed. Dale says it's time for new blood to rise to the top of the evolutionary scale, and we're it."

"We know what Dale says Lara. It just doesn't seem right that's all…"

Strange echoes resounded through the forest, the children all looked in one direction.

"What's that then? Someone make a telepathic link to see if there's any Children in that direction." One said in a hurry gesturing to where the sounds came from.

After a few minutes silence the cockney girl spoke;

"Yeah! It's Jez an' his tribe. He said there's Inferiors sniffin' about the lifestream, He reckons they're the Shinra scum Vince talked about. Come on let's go!" With that they ran off.

------------------------------------

"Hmmm…" Reno puffed out his cheeks, leaning back lazily in his chair.

"Inferior. They called us that. They don't seem to say it as an insult, more just a label, a name. And the telepathic thing you mentioned makes sense; they seem to convey a lot of information in those meaningful stares they give one another." He thought over what Yuffie had said for a while, trying to make sense of it.

"Do you think that they might be Ancients?" He finally asked.

"I doubt that, Aeries was the last one, that blood line died with her." Yuffie had a point, but he had no other way to explain how they could communicate telepathically, and he was pretty sure Jennin didn't have any materia on her when she was curing him. It felt different from a Restore spell too, he could still feel the magic lingering within him… it was odd. He sighed and stood up, stretching.

"I'm going to buy a new shirt and maybe some Phoenix down in case Elena doesn't wake up, coming?" He had half hoped she'd decline, he wasn't sure if he could hack any more of her bratty personality. But almost dying a few hours previously had put him on edge enough to want some sort of company, a ninja made him feel strangely at ease that if he were attacked again he would have more chance getting away with his life intact.

The sun was below the horizon now and the shops were just shutting, the red haired Turk had dragged Yuffie around too many shops to count, she had very nearly ran off again. But shopping with Reno was kinda fun really. She made him try on all sorts of crap and he did the same to her until he finally settled on a white shirt almost identical to the one he had left soaked in blood at the lifestream.

"C'mon you pint-sized little brat, let's see if Cid got that antidote and if Elena's got off her lazy arse yet." He said this with a friendly enough tone, but Yuffie never took kindly to being called a brat, or pint-sized for that matter.

"Why you son of a-" She was stopped short when a group of shadowy figures circled them, the orange glow of sunset dully lit the edges of weapons they carried, jammed packed with coloured orbs. Reno and Yuffie stepped back, fear rising into both of them, they stopped when they had pressed their backs against the other. Reno's hand slipped instinctively to the Electro rod at his hip, but he didn't have time to even unclip it, two darts flew through the air, missing him by a fair amount. One, however, found it's way into Yuffie's arm; she gasped and put her hand to it, meaning to prize it out. But everything around her started spinning, everything looked so colourful; she collapsed in a heap, out cold.

"Yuffie!" Reno shouted, pacing towards her, three children beat him to it and were prizing her materia off her like greedy vultures. Man did that girl carry a lot of those orbs! "Hey! Give those back!" He insisted, grabbing one of the kids. There was a curse and a flash of metal and Reno found the cold, hard barrel of a semi-automatic gun placed at his forehead, the kid looked familiar, it was that Jez boy who had attacked them earlier, and there was a dangerous glint in his eye.

"Hey there kid! Jennin said you weren't to hurt me? Remember?"

'Please remember you fool child!' he thought to himself desperately. Jez laughed manically.

"Yeah, I remember all right. But you see, not even Jennin can cure a bullet in the head. What happens, happens, not even us Indigo Children can turn back time." He smirked and cocked the gun, Reno clamped his eyes closed desperately thinking of a way out, there were eight heavily armed Indigo Children against one man with an electro-rod still attached to the loop of his belt.

"If you hand over all your materia and let go of Lara there then we'll leave with the same number of bullets inside this gun as we set out. If you aren't willing to co-operate…well then, one little bullet missing won't be too much of a loss will it? Even two won't be sorely missed." His greedy eyes flashed over Yuffie's form. Could he risk unclipping his Electro-rod before that bullet was fired from the gun, into his head? He doubted it very much. 'I can't believe I'm being mugged by a gang of children!' he groaned to himself as he let go of the girl he had grabbed.

TBC…


	6. Lovesick

6

Lovesick

The children stalked off with the contents of both Reno's and Yuffie's pockets, but with the same number of bullets that they left with. Reno gathered the petite ninja up into his arms and solemnly carried her back to the hotel. He took her up to her room, the Children had at least left her the room keys, which he prized from her pocket and struggled to open the lock as Yuffie's slumped form was filling his arms. Once the door was open he set her down in her bed, shaking out his arms, she was heavier than she looked. The dart still stuck out from her arm, a little trickle of blood had ran down her arm from the wound, but other than that it seemed to have not caused much damage.

"Must be poisoned or drugged…" he muttered out loud "…at least she's quiet for once." He looked down to her sleeping form, she looked so peaceful. He guessed the dart was drugged rather than poisoned, given the few seconds the stuff took to knock her out and she wasn't dead, so it wasn't snake venom or anything. He plucked the dart out from her arm and checked her temperature using the back of his hand on her forehead. She wasn't cold or hot, so he had to assume she was just drugged and would wake in a few hours. His eyes fell onto her mini bar, a smile crept onto his lips and he leant down, opening the clear door and grabbing some ice-cold beer. He collapsed into the chair and used his teeth as a bottle opener, spitting the metal top out and taking a much-deserved swig. Once he was nicely settled he fished around in his pockets for the cigarettes that the children had left with him. He lit up and took a long, satisfying drag, narrowing his eyes as he did so. Three cigarettes and two beers later and he finally stood up, opening Yuffie's door and disappearing downstairs to the bar.

It was fairly busy again; none of his co-workers were about though. Despite Reno being the one who had got most seriously wounded he was the only one now not in bed recovering from his injuries. Originally he intended to ask more questions about the Children, but he had got distracted with beer once he was sat at the bar.

An hour, maybe more passed by, he had lost track of time really, a figure came over and sat next to him.

"You all right?" A feminine voice asked him, he snapped his head up and met eye to eye with Jennin.

"No actually. Your little friends have not only almost killed me and my little friends today, but have also mugged me of a majority of my possessions and knocked out the last remaining member of the team I am travelling with." It was more the fact he had fallen for the girl who seemed to be in the middle of this whole Children thing that pissed him off. But he couldn't help how he felt towards her, his heart rate had already doubled and palms got clammy against the cool pint he was clutching with her being so close to him.

She lay a soft hand on his shoulder, "I really am sorry Reno. The Children are hard to control sometimes, there are many of us, and word doesn't travel as fast as it should…" A soft, but bitter chuckle rose into his throat, he didn't like being played for a fool.

"You seem pretty good at communicating with one another from what I saw. You don't even need to open your mouth.

"–And don't look at me like you don't know I'm talking about, it's no light feat getting into the Turks, we do need to pass a string of intelligence tests." There was a short pause while Jennin looked deeply into the bottom of the drink she was clutching.

"I suppose I wouldn't fall for a guy who wasn't intelligent enough to pick that up. But so what, it takes energy to communicate telepathically. We only do it in front of Inferiors and in emergencies." The first part of what she said struck a cord with him, she'd fallen for him? The child like excitement he suddenly felt was difficult to push down.

"There's that word again, Inferiors. What do you mean by that?" He was surprised that he wasn't actually angry with her, how could he be? She was too perfect to get angry at.

"I have said too much. I am sorry Reno, but I'm not supposed to talk to anyone about the ways of The Indigo Children. I came here to see you. As far as I'm concerned you and me need not let The Children complicate our friendship. Let's just have fun together hey?" He found himself nodding rather than demanding she get his and Yuffies materia back as the logical side of his brain screamed out he should be doing. Instead he found himself dancing with her again as the music had got louder and the dance floor cleared.

How was it that every woman before her had failed to make him feel as alive as Jennin made him? The blood pumped round his body like an electric current and his stomach felt light and fluffy as she stroked his pale cheek and pressed her body close to his. She nibbled at his ears again, which sent him crazy for her; she muttered soft words into his ears as she did so and he gripped her tighter to him.

"Let's go for a walk." He let her pull away from him. If he was honest with himself, he'd much rather continue dancing close to her with her gently nibbling his earlobe whispering sweet nothings into his ear than go for a walk, but he found himself gripping her hand and being led out of the bar into the fresh night air. She slipped an arm around his waist and he did the same back to her as they walked in silence. As they walked together he tried to remember the last time he had just been close to a woman in such an innocent way. He couldn't remember, he wouldn't usually be this into a woman unless she was undressing herself in front of him. But now he walked arm in arm with this girl and he felt twice what he felt for any other woman.

They came to a stop at the edge of the forest; Jennin sat down and beckoned him down to join her. She lay flat on her back, looking up at the stars

"Aren't they beautiful?" She sighed happily. Reno had to admit; the sky was pretty at night out in the country where no street lamps hazed the view.

"Reno…Where did you grow up?" Usually he wasn't someone who talked openly to anyone about his past. His past brought up memories he'd rather leave in the back of his mind, hidden away. But somehow Jennin brought it all out of him. He began telling her all about growing up in the slums of Midgar, his mother dying, not even knowing who his father was… and for once he didn't feel as bitter about it as he had done before. Because it was behind him now, the past was in the past; the future was all that mattered now. He was about to ask her about her past. But he saw she had drifted into sleep. A soft smile appeared on his lips as he lovingly smoothed a stray hair away from her eyes and kissed her cheek softly, lying down beside her and snuggling into her, quickly having sleep wash over him.

When he woke the next morning the sun streamed through the trees nearby and the birds chattered in dawn chorus. Jennin was crouched at a fire, holding a stick that had meat and plants stuffed onto it.

"Morning Reno. I'm just making breakfast. Freshly caught Mu and some beets I found growing nearby." He chuckled to himself lightly, she was a tough nut. Part of him would have rather gone back to the hotel to get some cereal, but the soft part of him that he never knew existed till now wanted to spend as much time around Jennin as possible.

It wasn't as bad as he thought it might be, the meat was tender and moist and the beets were sweet tasting. They sat by the fire as the sun slowly crept up further in the sky, Reno couldn't think of anywhere he'd rather be, everything was just perfect for once in his life. He felt like someone else whilst he was with Jennin, he felt younger somehow, more innocent; she helped him forget who he really was.

"Where do you live Jennin? With all those kids?" She nodded, not wanting to say more on the subject.

"What do you do with your life then? Look after them all?" He had leant back on his elbows feeling full and content.

"The Children look after themselves. I survive, that's what I do; catching food and foraging for herbs and medicines. Surviving in the wild is a full time job."

"Why don't you live in a town then?"

"I did once. As a kid. In the slums like you…" She cocked her head to one side like a bird might hold its head, staring intently at him, making him feel a little uncomfortable. What was she thinking?

"Reno…have you done anything you truly regret in your life?" That was an odd question to ask a Turk, or at least Reno thought it was. Perhaps here out in the forest she didn't know what the Turks really did.

"Of course I have."

"I mean really regret, one thing that stands out over all the smaller regrets?" There was something he did regret over all the other things he had been made to do in his job. But he was so ashamed of this he couldn't even bring himself to tell Jennin he had even done it in the first place.

"I have too many regrets to list them all now. Why do you ask?" Her eyes were narrowed and lips pressed together as if she were angry with him for not answering. But a smile replaced the dark looks and she shrugged.

"No reason." She stood and stretched, "I should get going Reno. But I'll see you later though yeah?" He scrambled to his feet in a fluster, not wanting her to go.

"Er, yeah." She stepped towards him and gently slipped a hand behind his head, caressing his hair as she leant close to him and pressed her lips against his, he kissed back, warmth filling his body as he closed his eyes and let the rush of excitement and attraction he felt for her wash over him. She pulled back and rushed off leaving Reno alone like a lovesick puppy. He cursed to himself in anger at getting soft and doused the fire, scattering the ashes and heading back to Mideel.

Elena was still asleep when he went back to the hotel at about lunchtime; he sat beside her and lightly shook her, concerned he'd have to buy Phoenix down after all. Relief spread over him when she stirred.

"Hey 'Lena." He smiled as she groaned and shifted her position in the bed to get more comfortable. "Are you still alive? You've been out long enough! I thought I was gunna have to sell my body just to get enough money to buy you a Phoenix down…" He waited for a reply, but she just groaned some more. "Yeah that's right, I got robbed, that includes my wallet. So did Yuffie. I better go and see how she is, she's gunna be pissed, they took all her materia. Serves the little brat right really." He thought Elena probably could do with a little longer resting, but at least she wasn't unconscious anymore. He had been beginning to worry that he would be alone for the rest of their stay in Mideel. 'What am I thinking!' he thought to himself as he closed Elena's door and went across the hall to Yuffie's room, 'I'd rather be alone than have to put up with these losers I've been thrown together with. I'd probably get this mission completed easier on my own.' But he was already stooping over Yuffie's slumbering form, poking her. She did not stir as easily as Elena had, in the end he decided a few more hours in blissful Yuffieless peace would do him some good. He sauntered out of her room, and crossed over to Cid's door, knocking on it.

"PISS OFF! I'm trying to get some FUCKING rest!" Reno raised a brow and stepped away from the door, guessing that Cid was probably fine.

Reno spent the remainder of this day asking questions of Mideel people who came into the hotel bar, but learnt nothing more than he knew already: People died and slipped into comas, the Children mugged and robbed almost every night and they seemed to be much stronger than any one in Mideel. Reno was a little concerned that they were too strong for himself, his fellow Turk and the two AVALANCHE members with them. As yet he had no clue why they were there and what was being planned.

Jennin stayed true to her word and saw him again, implanting her into his thoughts even deeper, yet their physical relationship did not go beyond hugs, kisses and one or two wondering hands. It was this that surprised Reno the most, she had been in his thoughts constantly for the last three days and he had neither slept with her, nor got bored of her. For him this was a long term relationship he was in, and it scared him a little that he could grow so attached to one woman so quickly.

The next day was almost exclusively spent with her, just talking, kissing, embracing and enjoying one another's company in the fields surrounding the town. To his disappointment she had to go 'home' in the afternoon.

He went back to the hotel to find that Cid was finally downstairs again and Yuffie was no where to be seen. Reno hoped she hadn't been stupid enough to seek out the materia that had been stolen from her, but somehow suspected that was where she had gone. By the late evening Elena was sat at the bar with him having only just got out of bed.

"Reno." He looked round, recognising that smooth sounding voice to be Jennin's. A large smile crept onto his face as he embraced her, his stomach turning to mush again.

"Do you wanna come for a walk?" She asked, already taking his hand and pulling him towards her. He parted his lips, wanting nothing more than to spend the evening with her, but duty called to him now his associates were finally mobile again. He looked over to Cid and then Elena, almost to ask their permission to go with her. Cid turned his nose up and buried his glare in his pint, but Elena gave him what he wanted, a little nod and light squeeze on the arm.

"You go off and have a good time…" He smiled in thanks and pulled away, she called him back once he was a little way from the bar.

"Hang on a sec" he asked Jennin, quickly returning to see what she might want. She put her head close to his and whispered in his ear.

"Be careful Reno. And try and find out something useful this time eh?" He scowled at her and returned to Jennin. Jennin had been right, it was better if their relationship didn't get tangled with The Indigo Children. Hell, he knew that was selfish as far as the Turks and AVALANCHE would be concerned, but he had a life to lead and he wasn't about to ditch the first person he ever felt worth being around for long periods of time for the Shinra.

They walked for a long time, into the forest and onward further, deeper into the trees. They occupied the time with gentle conversation and occasional kisses and the odd hug. Sounds that did not belong to a forest at night started to drift into his ears, and lights began to shine through the trees. He furrowed his brows and looked down to Jennin.

"Where are we going?" She split off from their arm in arm embrace and walked beside him with a glint in her eye and a smirk he had not seen her use before.

"Home, Reno. My home. I have some things I want to make clear to you." She came to a halt at about a hundred yards from where the sound of chattering children and drums beats came from.

"First, I need to know, how do you really feel about me? Be honest now, none of this cold, hard Turk exterior."

He sighed, not really wanting to expose his inner feelings that had never been exposed to anyone before. It felt odd, telling her those things, like he was somehow naked in front of a gang of strangers, it made him feel vulnerable in a way he had never felt before. But she was about to show him her home where the Indigo Children were, he felt that she was sacrificing things she had promised to herself to keep secret, it was only right he do the same.

As he told her how he felt, that he had fallen head over heels for her, that she made him feel so alive and free and hopeful for the future, her smirk grew. He brushed it off as paranoia after putting his feelings out in the open as she led him towards the sounds, towards her home and The Indigo Children.

TBC…

Authors note: If anyone out there is reading this could you please review! Cheers. Izzia.


	7. Dale

Authors note: I wanna say a big thank you to Ayane 7, darkbeerangel and ducky in spandex for reviewing, I really appreciate it loads! And please, please if there's anyone else who's reading could you review, if you hate it then please tell me! Or if you just don't know what to put review it and say you read it so I know how many people are reading it! If you started to read it and only got half way through coz it was boring you, tell me! Cheers, Izzia

7

Dale

He didn't know what to expect when he got there, but not this. They had built houses from wood; there were even a few brick buildings. The wide path they walked along was lined in flame lit torches to light the way. They passed houses where music and singing and screeching was heard, as they got closer to the centre there were even shops, now shut with big 'closed' signs pinned up on the doors, scrawled in an immature hand like the kids had been playing a make believe shop keeper game. But something about the place told him the kids did not play make believe in these buildings. This was as real a town as any other he had been to, even if the population was mostly children.

The centre was expansive and spacious with one large wooden building in the centre and green grass around it where many children were gathered, chatting and eating. Many stared as Jennin led him through, towards the wooden building in the centre. He couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in this place; it was eerie that these kids lived without parents in the middle of a thick forest, in a self-built town that no one knew existed. Their beady eyes staring up at him had an intelligence behind them that he sensed went beyond his own, despite many being less than half his age. A few metres in front of the building they were headed towards stood an odd plinth carved out of wood. Upon it sat a large orb which looked suspiciously like materia, only much larger, and being a sort of purple colour it seemed unusual for materia. It was then that he thought of the right word to describe the exact sort of purple it was: indigo.

They went into the building, through a hall and into a large room with a couple of beds, chairs and cabinets. She almost pushed him into a chair, her expression hard and cold.

'Whop, hello, it's getting a bit kinky all of a sudden.' He thought to himself with an impish grin as she yanked a coil of rope off a peg and began to secure him to the chair. The sense of disturbed sexual excitement was replaced with genuine fear as she tied the rope off tight and bent down to his eye level with a look of anger and hate at him.

"I'll have the Protect Pendant I gave you back now I think. I want you to hurt as much as you made me hurt." She yanked the necklace off once she had unclasped it, and pocketed it. What had she meant? Had he hurt her, he couldn't remember hurting her.

As he furrowed his brows and cast his mind back to a time where he may have accidentally caused her hurt, a good looking tall man with dark brown hair and smooth features came in. His well-conditioned hair was of a similar length to Yuffie's bob-do; only his was softly layered. A few gathered strands of hair swept across his forehead, drawing attention to his bright blue eyes. He made Reno feel jealous immediately, especially when he wrapped his slender, yet muscular arms around Jennin and pecked her cheek lovingly.

"Oi!" The man chucked softly and let go of Jennin, walking up close to the red-head and smirking.

"I don't believe we have been introduced. Though, of course Jennin has told me all about you. I'm Dale." He extended an arm to shake hands with Reno, whose own arms were pinned to his side by the coils of rope. Dale sniggered calmly and shook his head. Reno glared at his captor contemptuously, he didn't take kindly to being tied up at the best of times, but this guy seemed to captivate Jennin more than he had been able to and he didn't like this feeling of anguish that was pooling in the pit of his stomach.

"It's Reno yes?" Reno did not think this woman-stealer deserved an answer to that question.

"Yes. Jennin has told me all about you." He looked at Reno like he was looking at a painting he that he couldn't decide whether he liked or hated, mostly hated Reno thought. He inhaled as if he were bored with the painting before he had fully decided and took his stare away from Reno, pacing up and down humming quietly to himself. Reno didn't know what to think, he stared at Jennin who was sat on the edge of the nearest bed, looking at Dale with wide swooning eyes.

"You are a Turk, yes?" Dale asked. Reno was still in no mood to respond to a guy who had just waltzed in and crushed his heart into a little ball.

"Answer." Dale snapped, all the graceful politeness that had been in his voice before gone. Reno preferred this angry tone rather than the mock friendly tones. When he still refused to answer, Dale paced over to Jennin and thrust an arm around her neck, kissing her passionately. She kissed back just as strongly.

That hurt. That hurt a lot.

"Stop!" Reno burst, he had begun to fall in love with that girl whether he wanted to or not and he couldn't hack watching her kiss another man any longer, he felt sick. Dale straightened up, smirking, Jennin just watched the tall man with a calm smile on her lips.

"Stop? Well, I suppose I could if you answered my questions." He pulled a spare chair up and brought it close to Reno's, a grin plastered firmly on his face. Reno hated him; he hated him more than he hated anything else in the entire world; that arrogant smile, his smooth movements and crisp tones of politeness in his silky voice. He hated him.

"Are you a Turk; a Shinra dogsbody?" Reno spat at him ensuring he brought forth all the mucus he could muster, his lips curled up in anger. Dale's superior smile vanished for a moment while he wiped the offending liquid from his face. He looked over to Jennin before leaning really close to Reno's ear and whispering.

"Do you want to know what she's like in bed? The soft yet invigorating feel of her smooth skin against yours, the perfection of her full, round…"

"Yes I am a Turk." Reno didn't know if he had ever given anyone a stare as cold as he just did to Dale.

"Good, good. I am glad we finally understand one another." That self-satisfied smirk and pompous way he stood up straight again made him wish he had access to his Electro-rod set at full power.

"I would like to ask of you some simple questions before Jennin gets her vengeance on you."

"What for? I've done nothing? I don't understand, Jennin? Please, tell me what's going on?" His insides were like jelly, he couldn't think of one thing he could have done to make her want to do this to him. And if this wasn't vengeful, what did she have in store for him?

"Hush babe, hush. Like I said, there are some things I wanted to make clear to you. Answer Dale first like a good boy now." Jennin had come close to him, behind his chair, and wrapped her arms about his neck, leaning over and pecking him softly on the cheek. Dale took her by the wrist with a dark look on his face and guided her back to the bed.

"Enough of that sweetheart. Enough." Reno felt a flash of triumph over the hint of jealously in the tall mans voice.

"These questions should be simple enough for you to answer, even for the Inferior you are. First; Why have you been sent here?" Reno paused before answering; he wanted to know what they meant about revenge, what he was supposed to have done that was so bad that someone would do this to him. If that meant answering his pompous little questions, then he'd do it.

"Curiosity more than anything else. Shinra Inc were worried about rumours from Mideel of people dying or falling unconscious suddenly and without warning." Dale sniggered and stared at him threateningly

"Do you expect me to believe that? Shinra know about the Indigo Children. I know that, you know that-"

"I didn't know that actually!" Reno snapped, getting angrier by the minute. Dale stared at him for a long time before saying anything.

"Yes. I believe you now. So… despite the Shinra knowing about us and the power we hold they keep it a secret from even their closest workers. Perhaps they do not suspect that it is here that we escaped to. Well. They will know soon now you have started sniffing about the island." These words seemed more of a private thought that he didn't bother containing in his own head than anything else. He quickly moved on to the next question

"Second question; Tell me everything you have learnt of the Indigo Children. I will know if you are lying, there you go; a hint at some of our abilities." He smiled to himself, Reno tried to suppress the disdainful sneer that he so wanted to give this pompous twit and inhaled deeply before answering.

"You're telepathic. More intelligent than most people? You can tell if people are lying? I dunno, other that that you just seem to be good at stealing materia…maybe that's just a kid thing…" He said to himself, the only other materia thief he knew had started that little hobby as a kid, bloody ninja brat. "Oh, and Jennin seemed to use magic without even using materia." He added quickly, really wanting to find out what the hell it was he had done to her.

"Yes. Yes. Other than that? Do you not know what we are planning, anything about the cause of the deaths and comas?" Reno shook his head, hoping he was about to tell him. But it seemed that knowledge would remain unknown for now.

"How many people are with you?"

"Just three others." He found staring at the floor a good way for controlling his anger and resentment at actually answering these questions. Usually he would not crack, no matter how many torture devices were used. The Turk training never prepared him for emotional torture though. He knew they did with people they thought susceptible to it, but Reno never showed any signs that he even had emotions.

"How many know where you four have gone?" Reno wondered if he should check to see if an Indigo Child could really tell whether he was lying or not. But he wanted these questions over with as soon as possible, besides, the information Dale was asking wasn't classified or anything.

"Not including those here, eight. Nine if you count a cat thing. Seven if you discount the cat. (I would.)"

"What? Never mind. That is all. Jennin, he's all yours. And don't be soft on him girl. I felt your pain for what he did to you long before we met. If you don't get proper revenge for yourself, I will do it for you." Jennin nodded and beckoned him over for a quick goodbye kiss before he sauntered off. Reno kept a hard eye on her as she came over and sat next to him. She looked different when she was angry.

TBC………

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Authors note: OK I'm gunna pause here as I think my chapters are too long at the moment I'm gunna try making them shorter! What do you guys think, is it easier to read shorter chapters?


	8. The Truth Outs

8

The Truth Outs

Previously:_ "That is all. Jennin, he's all yours. And don't be soft on him girl. I felt your pain for what he did to you long before we met. If you don't get proper revenge for yourself, I will do it for you." Jennin nodded and beckoned him over for a quick goodbye kiss before he sauntered off. Reno kept a hard eye on her as she came over and sat next to him. She looked different when she was angry._

"Who's he?" Reno demanded in a cold voice.

"He's Dale. My boyfriend." He just stared at her, his lips pushed together, anger and sickness pumping through him.

"How long have you and him…"

"Two years." Reno sighed angrily, feeling defeated and thoroughly deflated.

"Why? Why did you make me believe you liked me? Why did you make me fall for you? Was it that pendant? It was, wasn't it? It wasn't a Protect Pendant at all, it was a manipulate materia or something. I'd never fall for a woman that intensely or so quickly without the aid of magic!"

"The pendant was a Protect Pendant Reno. You fell for me yourself. I admit I was surprised in how fast I had you hooked on me… I wasn't even going to do it like that. I was just going to kill you, real slow. To be honest I never thought I'd see you again. But I vowed that if I ever did, I'd make you feel what I felt…

"When I saw you again in the bar in Mideel I didn't know what to think. At first sad, and angry. But then my creativity kicked in and I thought of all the slow and painful ways I could kill you. I never expected you'd come and dance close to me. But you did and a new plan formed. Why kill him straight away? Build him up before I knock him down. Welcome to being knocked down, Turk." Reno gaped, what was she talking about, he'd never seen her before that night in the hotel bar.

"What? I think this is a case of mistaken identity. I never saw you before four days ago. What's this all about?" She leant in really close to him, her sweet scent filled his nose and reminded him of earlier, when everything was good and she wasn't blaming him for something he had never done.

"Sector. Seven. Slums." She said this in staccato, emphasising each syllable, her eyes unblinking and slightly narrowed in the anger she was clearly trying to keep suppressed. He closed his eyes and gently bit down at his lip as he hung his head, his insides felt like jelly and his heartbeat drummed against his ears.

"My family lived in the sector seven slums. We lived a quiet life. My childhood was all right considering the circumstances. Of course, my father pushed down my claims of hearing voices and denied the things I could do without the aid of materia. In fact the only Indigo Child ability my family did embrace was my heightened intelligence, my mother used to say that one day her sweet Jennin would live up on the top with the sky above her. Her sweet Jennin just knew things, knew things without having to be taught. She didn't have to pay for me to go to school because I already knew enough. Well, as soon as I was sixteen I got a job, I was bright enough. I'm an Indigo Child. All Indigo Children are bright. That was where I was on that day, working in a shop up top making money for my parents and two little sisters while they were being crushed to death under the plate that had hung over their sorry heads their whole life." He could see the hint of tears hang at the corner of her eyes. The hint of tears at the back of his own eyes were edging on threatening to surface, but he pushed them down, grinding his teeth together.

"When I heard the news, I didn't know what to think. They were dead. The rumours reached me soon enough. It was the Turks who did it. Some said it was AVALANCHE, but I learnt the truth soon enough. The Turk with red hair, he was the heartless bastard who had ripped apart my family, my friends, my home, my life with no consideration to who he hurt, how many lives he destroyed."

"That's not true." He said with quiet solemnity. A jolt of pain hit his cheek, she had slapped him hard.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I HATE YOU! Speak when you are told to." She raged, turning red in anger. He hung his head again. Ok, she deserved to have this moment, he could understand that.

"I had nothing. Not even the job I hated, I got fired when I missed work the day after. I had nothing. Nothing except the voices. The voices in my head had always been there, no matter how much I ignored them. They had been calling me to them since before I can remember. In Midgar all you need to survive is a credit card, and a job to keep it filled up. In the country all you need is a good knife and a sharpening stone to keep it sharp. I no longer had a job or credit card. But I did have a knife and a sharpening stone. So I left the city and followed the voices. Followed Dale's voice here. I never thought I'd see you. But here you are." Disgust filled her voice and expressions; she looked down on him like he was a piece of shit on her shoe. He felt like a piece of shit on her shoe.

"In these past few days I got to know you and I have to admit I was surprised. You're not quite the jerk I had pictured you to be; you have some humanity in you. I wonder if that is just because you are three years older than you were when you thought you could crush thousands of innocent people to death and get away with it. I decided to give you a chance to admit that what you did was wrong, that you maybe you felt something about it. When I asked you if there was anything you had done that you truly did regret you did not think that murdering those poor souls was anything to be especially regretful of."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" It came out less strong and angry than he had meant it to, it sounded more pained than strong, but he couldn't just sit back without justifying himself, she had to at least hear his side of it.

"Go on then, convince me that you're a saint, that you deserve the life you've been given." Suddenly his excuses seemed pathetic, but she at least should know why he did it, she deserved to know. As he told her he did not dare look up from the dusty wooden floor his eyes had rested on.

"I'm no saint. I don't pretend that I am worth anything or deserving of life. But that incident was not my own personal wish, you know that don't you? You know that I am a Turk. My job is to do what ever the hell I am told to do without questioning it. I admit, even I had to question that order the day it came to me.

"I grew up in the slums, hell I probably knew some of those I killed. I dunno. I guess the human instinct for survival kicked in. That order came from above; if I didn't do it I was dead."

Tears streamed down her face freely now, every tear she spilt cut into Reno like a knife, he had caused those tears, but she had to understand.

"Selfish jerk! You could have just taken that risk, one death would have been better than thousands!"

"You seriously think they'd say 'Oh, Reno won't do it. Let's kill him and leave it at that?' No. There were other Turks and countless freelance contract killers that would have been put on that job." She just shook her head, sobbing; he didn't know what to say to make her better. There was nothing he could say.

"For the record, I hate myself for doing it, but I did and that's that. I have to grin and bear the scars of what I have done in the past, even that scar, in all it's hugeness, I have to move on. And you too have to move on and live your life."

Through her sobs she tried to say something, but she was sobbing too hard. This was a torture too great for Reno, despite all that was happening he still felt for her, he still had the seeds of love for her growing within him. But he would not let those tears threatening to well up come, he clamped his eyes closed and tried to think of something else, craving alcohol, drugs, anything just to be somewhere else, someone else.

"I…I had planned all the ways I… could hurt you for so long and…and now you're here I can't do any of them…I just…I…Dale's gunna hate me…" She said through sobs

"Believe me, you've hurt me. A hurt that won't heal any time soon. I'm a Turk, I've had more broken bones than I could list, I have stared death in the eye enough times, been tortured till there was no part of my body that wasn't bruised, burnt or cut. But I have never been as hurt as I am now. Tell that to your little boyfriend!" He snapped bitterly. Seriously, he'd prefer conventional torture.

"Jennin! We need your help here!" Dale had put his head round the doorframe and looked pretty flustered, Reno tried to see what was going on, but from the chair he sat on, all he could see was the room he was being held captive in. Seeing as he had been left alone he gave wriggling his arms free a go, but the rope had been tied too well.

A few minutes passed, he could hear shouts now drifting into the room from outside, the sound of shuffling feet and muffled shouts grew closer until Dale and another man a few years younger brought in Yuffie Kisaragi kicking and trying her best to scream through the hands clamped around her mouth. She struggled her jaw free and shouted

"Let me go you JERKS! Gimme my materia back now, or you'll all pay BIG TIME!" Her eyes fell on Reno's tied up figure and she stopped kicking for a moment, her eyes going wide in surprise; Dale used her moment of submission to his advantage and clapped his hand over her mouth again. She didn't take kindly to this and struggled twice as hard as before. But Dale had reached the destination he had been heading in. He and his associates dumped her onto one of the beds. Reno had not noticed that they had straps attached to them till now. Jennin had been following the two men and buckled the straps up onto Yuffie's wrists and ankles as Dale and the other man held her down. As soon as Dale took his hand away from her mouth she started ranting again

"Let us go! You'll regret this you sons of bitches! I'll deck you one, I will! LET ME GO!" Dale paced across to one of the cabinets and opened a drawer, pulling out a piece of red cloth and returning to Yuffie, gagging her. Reno wished he had thought of doing that before.

"Do you know this girl?" Dale asked him. Reno narrowed his eyes and went back to his tactic of not answering. Jennin was Dale's; he could taunt him all he wanted now he knew that, Reno couldn't change the way things were. Dale flashed him a hard stare and pulled a chair out from under Yuffie's bed, sitting on it and pulling a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket, lighting up and taking a drag. He went over to Reno and leant down to him, letting the smoke waft out of his mouth into Reno's face.

"Do you know this girl?" Reno didn't know what the hell he thought smoking would do to make him talk; he felt no more like answering. Dale stood and went over to Yuffie, putting the end of his cigarette between his index finger and thumb, staring at the smouldering end for a moment with a smirk on his lips before taking a sturdier grip on it and stubbing it down onto Yuffies bare skin. A muffled, but pained scream filled his ears and made him grimace. Dale did not remove the cigarette; he simply looked at Reno with that arrogant smile of his.

"Do you know this girl?" He asked again. Yuffie would never forgive him if he didn't answer soon.

"Yes." Dale nodded and retracted the cigarette from her skin.

"Wasn't so hard to speak now was it Turk?"

"Is she one of the three you were in Mideel with?" Reno nodded, biting down on his lips. Dale looked over to Jennin, from the way they looked at one another Reno guessed they were communicating telepathically. She nodded and sat on the floor looking miserable.

"There is little time left now. Too many people know about us being here. The test must happen tonight."

TBC…

Authors note: OK, I think I'll go back to longer chapters now. I just wanted to see if it worked any better with the shorter ones, I'm not sure that it does, thanks to darkbeerangel and Ayane 7 on your advice on this. Anywoo, thanks to Ayane7, darkbeerangel, ducky in spandexand Astaroth the fallen for reviewing! (And anyone else who is reading thanks!)


	9. The Test

9

The Test

Jasper's mother had died two weeks ago and he didn't know where to turn, he had never known his father and his half-brother had run away a year ago. His childhood could have been better; at least he didn't live in the slums. His mother had been a secretary at the Shinra Inc until the meteor struck. After that the company had to make cuts, his mother got a good redundancy package though and found work in Kalm while Midgar was being re-built. It had been better for him since his elder brother had run away; Jez always blamed him for his father divorcing their mother. It had been a one night stand that resulted in his mother being divorced from her husband and the conception of Jasper. Jez had every right to not take to his younger half-brother, or that's what Jasper thought anyway. His mother had moved back to Midgar a couple of months ago when she fell ill. It was cancer and too late to do much about either. If he had been a normal kid he'd be worried about Jez not knowing she had died. But Jez knew. Jez was an Indigo Child. Jasper was too, the voices never did go away, but Jasper prided himself on being better than his brother at ignoring them. He refused to give into them. The other thing Jasper refused to do was go to the orphanage, he'd heard the stories that came out of that place and would much rather take his luck with his friends parents for a while, until he decided about going to join the Children who had been calling him to them for so long.

Tonight he slept at his friend Toko's house, he was nice enough, and his mother had taken sympathy at his situation, but he knew the welcome would run cold eventually. Sleep always took time to come, in the evening the voices were the loudest as many of the Indigo Children in Mideel would settle down to bed and make a telepathic link before going to sleep, and Jasper had less to do, less to distract him from them.

"Jasper. It's today, the Big Test! We're not supposed to tell the non-committed Children about it, but it's so exciting, I'm sure it will make you wanna come and join us! Right, so Dale said that the Indigo Children are the future, right." Jasper sighed, but replied anyway, this 'test' sounded interesting, he decided he'd listen for once.

"Yes."

"Yeah, so Dale says that The Great One had a plan. That plan is to rid the planet of all the Inferior who don't carry the Indigo gene, a culling of all those who don't carry the gene. Isn't it exciting?"

"No! You can't do that? Why?" He had sat up straight now, was this just a prank or something?

"Coz the Inferior are stupid, they destroy the planet, if we destroy them then we can live in harmony with the planet. The way us children live here is peaceful and kind to Gaia. It's not like that in Midgar, that's coz the Inferior are too stupid to realise what they are doing to the planet. The Inferior want to kill the Children coz they are scared of us, that's why we have to hide away."

"So what's this test?" He decided he'd try and at least figure out what they were doing before warning someone.

"Well, tonight we're gunna test out the Indigo Materia to a level high enough to wipe out all who live in a ten mile radius of it."

"What? What does this materia do?" He tried to keep the desperation out of his voice, but he had to find out before one of the elders realised a Child was divulging confidential information to a non-committed Child.

"It kills any human being who does not carry the Indigo Gene. It comatoses people who very weakly carry it, and only hurts those who carry the dormant version of the gene. That way the Inferiors who carry the dormant gene could still have Indigo kids. It doesn't even hurt Indigo Children. Ain't that good?"

"Er, yeah, great. So is the test a preparation for doing it strong enough to wipe out everyone on the planet who isn't some form of Indigo gene carrier?"

"Yep. If it works good enough tonight we'll use it at its fullest power." Jasper could tell this kid was very young, and had been brainwashed into thinking this was a good thing from an even younger age.

"Who is this Great One?"

"Well…oh. I've gotta go. Come Jasper, please come. Dale says we may have to leave Mideel soon coz the Shinra scum are sniffing about. Come!" With that the connection was lost. Jasper was shaking all over. He had 'Inferior' friends, he didn't want Dale to be the leader of the world, he sounded mad. He pushed the covers of his sleeping bag off him and quickly changed into his clothes. There was no time to tell Toko about where he was going, he didn't even know where he was going. The Shinra maybe… or that group who had stopped Sephiroth. AVALANCHE. He was an Indigo Child, he knew things without needing to be told. One thing he knew was that Tifa Lockheart had bought a bar in New Midgar and called it 7th Heaven after the last one she owned. She could help.

He ran the whole way there, legs pumping hard. He was only eight years old so those pumping legs were only little.

-------------------

Reno hadn't got a clue what was going on, except that Dale, Jennin and the other guy who he learned was called Jak had left to carry out the 'Big Test' whatever that might be. Three kids had been sent in to guard the redhead and his associate. To Reno's annoyance, one of them was the boy who had led the group who robbed Yuffie and himself, Reno vaguely remembered his name being Jez. The kids seemed narked off that they had to watch the captives rather than watch the 'test', Jez sat on the chair nearest to him staring at him with hatred filling those young eyes of his.

"The Test will begin soon and you will be dead, I'd just like to take this opportunity to say, I hope you rot in hell, home-wrecker.." It looked as if he was about to say more, but Reno wasn't listening, a pain erupted through him, tearing apart his insides, making him retch. It felt like red-hot needles being pressed against every fibre of his body, he was glad that the sensation only remained for a few seconds. After this his body only ached like he had been fully beaten up and left for dead in some alley way. Yuffie was still screaming, it was like she wouldn't ever stop. Jennin and Jak had ran in, both looking confused.

"He's not dead!" She exclaimed, running over to Reno, ignoring Yuffie who was still screaming and doing her best to writhe about. "He's not even in pain!"

"He looked like he was just now." Jez replied quickly, he had stood up and had his hands on his hips, and teeth gnashed together as he alternated his glances from Reno to Jennin.

By now Reno was thoroughly confused and more than just a little pissed off, especially with all these Children talking about him as if he wasn't there. Any tact that Reno possessed was overcome by his annoyance as he shouted;

"WHAT IN HELL IS GOING ON!" The strength of his angry plea to be spoken to was only slightly marred by Yuffie's even louder screams that had not yet subsided.

"The test failed, that's what, you're sat here painless, she's not dead either." She gestured to Yuffie, whose scream was not constant anymore. Stress had marked her beneath her eyes and in her lack of energy in her response, but by now Reno was too bitter to notice these little things about her.

Jez took Jennin's arm as Jak ordered the other two who were guarding Reno and Yuffie previously to go and meet the Children coming back from Mideel.

"I think I know why that scum bag's fine…" Was all he heard of whatever Jez was saying to Jennin before he led her out of the room.

Reno sat in that chair listening to Yuffie's screams slowly turn into pained groans until finally she was silent. He hated not knowing what was going on. Jak had remained in the room with them as every other Child rushed about, and by the look on Jak's face he was in constant communication telepathically. Reno drifted into sleep eventually after over ten minutes of nothing happening and having nothing better to do than rest his heavy eyelids. Man had he had a rough day. He vowed to himself to never, ever get close to a woman like that again, one night stands worked out better.

He woke to sounds of commotion in the room, Jak was frantically emptying the contents of the cabinets into backpacks, being selective about what he took, it seemed there was a large collection of materia stashed in the cabinets that Jak was keen to take. A woman maybe a year or two younger than Reno was also in there, organising a group of very young Children into an orderly line.

"Nyra, Nyra! Why are we moving away?" A little girl asked, she couldn't have been much older than three. The elder woman, Nyra, answered in a flustered, preoccupied way as she tried to get an even younger kid to put on a jacket and take a small rucksack packed full of materia.

"Shhh Ebby, shhh. It will be ok. We have to go away from the bad people. They are coming here." She used a soothing voice that branded her as being someone who, unlike anyone Reno knew, was good with children.

"I heard that one of us committed Children let it slip about the Big Test to one of the un-committed. They say it was Jasper, that kid Dale wanted here over all the others, the strong one."

"Martha said it was Jez's little brother who's real powerful, and Dale wants him, but he wouldn't come!" Another kid said almost gleefully. That was it, all the children started to gossip about what they had heard, it took both Nyra and Jak to fire a blank from Jak's gun to get them quiet again.

"Hush! You are giving too much away to the two Inferior in this room! Now children. Come along with me to the Chocobo stables." Nyra looked exhausted as she led the children out. Dale came in soon after; his smooth exterior that had pissed Reno off earlier looked dishevelled.

"Jak, everything is ready. The Children are all ready down at the stables. Come on." His voice lacked the arrogant silkiness now; Jak nodded and looked over to Reno, then Yuffie.

"What are we going to do with them?" Dale collapsed into the chair he had sat on before, when taunting the Turk.

"Er, I dunno. Half of me wants to kill them, especially this one. But he hardly reacted to the test at all. He's a very strong Indigo gene carrier. Any kid he has with even a fairly weak carrier will almost certainly be an Indigo Child, and probably a powerful one too. We can't kill off such a strong carrier of the gene."

Jak grimaced slightly, his eyes drifting over to Reno with a hint of disgust in his expressions.

"Would we want any kids of his? He's a jerk, I felt what he did to Jennin's family on that day." Dale sighed and looked off in thought.

"If we raised any kid he fathers maybe it won't end up being like it's father." Reno had no intention of informing them he was very, very unlikely to ever have kids, he hated children with a vengeance, to father one would be his idea of a personal hell. But it seemed his apparent ability to have freak children was saving his life right now, so he kept quiet.

"What about her?" Jak asked, gesturing towards Yuffie, who seemed either asleep or unconscious.

"Ah, I dunno Jak. The Test was a little too weak, only the old, sick and weak died in Mideel according to the Children posted there. Most are in comas. A few are merely unconscious, around five are awake and report severe pain at the time of the test. This girl, she sleeps now, but remained conscious throughout the test. I cannot be sure if this was just because we did not put enough power into the materia or because she is a dormant carrier of the gene. Either way, she is not as strong as the Turk. I doubt even my own mother carried the gene as strongly as he does though." He stood, staring down at Reno in abhorrence.

"We must hurry, the Shinra are coming here thanks to that fool Jasper. It is a shame; Jasper was as powerful as Jennin, maybe more so, I could sense it in him. He is a lost cause now though… I think a powerful dose of Indigo-Petrify will keep these two from talking for a long while. A very long while." That smirk re appeared at the tall man's lips again as he picked up his rucksack and rummaged around until he picked out a much smaller orb of Indigo materia than the one Reno had seen on the plinth.

Reno couldn't explain the feeling; it was like having Petrify cast on you, only ten times, no a hundred times, worse. That feeling of being cut off from the world, not being able to move was heavily exaggerated. It felt like he'd never be happy again, half stuck between awake and asleep. Dimly he was aware of Jennin next to him saying goodbye.

"Reno…I… you are different from what I expected…I am sorry for what I did to you I think. Well the part of me that started to fall for you is anyway. The other part of me still hates you, the part of me that belongs to Dale. I belong to Dale. Goodbye Turk." He felt soft lips brush his cheek and footsteps fading away to nothing. After that all was silent.

Somewhere along the line he fell into full sleep, an un-waking, un-dreaming sleep that held no rest or renewed any energy. He was just nothing.

­

"Do you think he'll ever wake up?"

"Don't be thick, of course he will. You're awake aren't you and the same happened to you."

"Those 'Softs' cured me, but they don't seem to have done anything for Reno. He looks kinda cute when he's in a Petrified induced sleep."

"Hmm… enjoy it while it lasts, once he's awake you'll wonder why you ever paid him a compliment."

"Hey, I know that Elena. I regret saying anything already. He's a big fat…skinny JERK!"

What was going on? Who was he again? Who's Elena?

"Well, maybe he won't ever wake up. I know I'm awake, but I'm oh-so much stronger than him aren't I? Poor Reno's a weakling compared to my greatness, you've gotta admit to that!"

"Oh-kay Yuffie, whatever you say."

Yuffie? He knew that name. Who's Yuffie? A girl. An annoying girl. Yes, things were coming back to him now. Yuffie was an annoying ninja brat of a girl.

"Reno! I saw him move, he just moved. Reno?"

Reno? That name sounded familiar. It hurt to move, but he tried anyway.

"Cloud! Reno's awake! Cloud!" That voice was definitely Yuffie's voice. Oh yes, now he remembered, _He_ was Reno.

"Well knock him out again then!" That tone of voice sounded light and jokey, and didn't come from Yuffie or Elena. What was Cloud doing near him? He remembered that he didn't exactly get along with that person.

"I wish." More laughter. Where was he? Mideel. The Indigo Children. But Cloud wasn't supposed to be there. His head was spinning, but at least he had got his full memory back, he groaned and blinked his heavy eyes open.

Staring down at him was Yuffie and Elena, with Cloud just beyond them, not looking particularly happy that Reno had regained consciousness. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a groan.

"Welcome back Reno. Despite the strength of all those 'softs' we gave you it took a while for you to bother to wake up. Typical of you though eh? Where there is opportunity to be doing nothing you grip it by the neck." He looked up to Elena and managed a smile.

"Myeah… sleep is good. I feel like I haven't slept for weeks…"

"You've been asleep for a day. Not long considering the strength of that spell, but long enough. We were considering leaving you here. The Indigo Children have gone; we need to locate them soon before they do to the planet what they tried to do to Mideel." Elena informed him with a warm manner to her voice and movements.

"Kill off people who don't carry the gene? Shit, Elena! I thought you'd be dead, what about Cid?"

Talking was getting easier now. He tried to sit up, but his mind was too groggy, he slumped back down, breathing heavily to regain the breath he lost to exerting that energy.

"I was knocked out, but recovered fast enough. The pain was more than I have ever felt before. Cid is in a coma. He's gone back to Midgar with Cait Sith on a Shinra plane that could be spared. When AVALANCHE and Rude came and told me what was going on, I was scared for you Reno. I thought you were dead, I really did." Concern filled her chocolate coloured eyes, she almost took his hand in hers as an emphasis for her worry, but she thought better of it. Reno did not notice her hand hover above his for a moment before being quickly replaced into her own lap, or the pink that flushed onto her cheeks for a moment as she did so, which was just as well really for Elena's sake.

"Nope. You can't be rid of me that easily. I'm a strong carrier of the gene…Rude's here?" Elena nodded, smiling down to him sympathetically, her recently blushing cheeks returning to their normal colour.

"He was worried about us and came along with AVALANCHE. He' s helping with preparations for leaving and uncovering where the Children have gone to." Cloud stepped forward, his face set and hard.

"Rest now. There is something important we need to discuss with you." He asked everyone to leave Reno be and went over to his bed, extending his arm forward, he held a potion in his hand.

"Drink this." Reno managed to sit up enough to be able to drink without choking. He snatched the bottle from Cloud's hand, being less than pleased at being told what to do by that spiky headed fool. But he wanted to be out of bed as soon as possible so he drank it. He felt better immediately, but sleep still called, he waited until Cloud had gone before closing his eyes and drifting into sleep.

TBC…

_Thankyou for reading and reviewing folks!_


	10. Ayle

10

Ayle

He woke up slowly, thinking how strange it was to not have a headache and a feeling of nausea; that was the advantage of not filling his body of alcohol the night before. He groaned and snuggled further into the duvet, remembering what he had been up to that had prevented him from drinking. When he remembered, he wished he had a hangover rather than this empty feeling inside of him.

Rather than spend the rest of the day wallowing in bed he thought it best if he get back to being his old self and sort out whatever mess the mission must have fallen into that had resulted in Cloud Strife needing to be called out. He pushed the covers back, sighing. 'Actually, maybe bed is better…' He got up anyway, keen to see Rude again. He quickly dressed into his severely crumpled uniform and sauntered downstairs with a wide yawn.

The brunette receptionist who had been giving him black looks ever since the first day was not there, no one was. The bar was livelier, but only with those annoying AVALANCHE members, none of the usual staff that seemed to out number the guests.

Sat around a table were Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart, Yuffie Kiseragi and Vincent Valentine. He did not know it but Barret was also at the hotel, upstairs with Jasper. Elena sat beside Rude on a table beside it, eating lunch. He didn't need to ponder over which table he should sit at.

"Alright Rude?" Rude gave him a sharp nod and small smile. Reno couldn't understand how his friend could see with those dark shades on all the time.

"What about you Reno?" Elena asked as he sat himself between them, stealing the sandwich off Elena's plate and taking a large bite. She scowled, crossing her arms angrily. "Or need I ask. You look fine and are acting as obnoxious as usual." A grin rippled across his lips

"Why thank you." He took a few more large mouthfuls before asking through a mouth filled of food; "So, what's going on?"

"The Indigo Children have gone somewhere to do what they did in Mideel to the whole planet. The people of Mideel are recovering from the 'test', most are in hospital though.

"We're leaving for the Mt Corel area. That's where Jasper can sense them heading towards." Reno furrowed his brows,

"Two questions: One; who is Jasper? Two: I don't get the Indigo Children. Jennin was more than annoyed at me for the Sector Seven Slums yet she's going to cull millions of people… what's that about?" He doubted he'd ever understand the minds of women.

"Cloud and Tifa have to talk to you about Jasper. As for the culling of millions, Jasper says that the leaders of what they called the 'committed' Indigo Children are not of sound mind. Dale, the one at the top, has been brainwashing them into following him and unpicking the threads of sanity that run within them. Jasper also mentioned that Jennin has complicated issues that have affected her judgement over things. Also, they talk about 'The Great One' sometimes, not even Jasper knows who this is, but maybe the answer to who this 'Great One' is might help clear up the motivations of the elders who are leading the committed Children to this genocide." Elena said. This Jasper bloke sounded like he knew a hell of a lot, Reno shuffled in his chair as he took another bite and asked Elena to elaborate for him.

"What's that about Cloud and Tifa and 'Jasper.'?" Elena shook her head with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Ask them about it." Reno licked the crumbs off his lips and looked over to Cloud and Tifa, curiosity filling him.

"Oh-Kay then…"

"Reno, what happened with Jennin? The last I knew you two looked just about ready to settle into marriage." Rude raised a brow and turned his head to take a bemused look at Reno, who shrugged

"I wouldn't say that Elena, I also don't want to talk about it, except to say that it's over." He had stood up, looking over to the AVALANCHE members. "Be back in a tick."

Cloud and Tifa both stood when Reno appeared beside them, he didn't even have to ask them about what he wanted to know, he opened his mouth to ask what all this secrecy over 'Jasper' was, but Tifa beat him to it.

"Come with us Reno, We have to ask you some important questions." She and Cloud walked off towards the lobby, Reno jogged to catch up with them to ask about who Jasper was

"We'll get to Jasper after we've cleared a few things up." They led him upstairs, into the room besides Yuffie's, Cloud sat on one of the chairs and Tifa perched on the end of the bed. It seemed it was Clouds room as the buster sword leant up against the wardrobe. Reno sighed and scanned the room with his eyes, a sudden rush of annoyance hit him;

"Shit, your room has a mini bar too! No fair, I'm beginning to think that bitch gave me the absolute worst room they have…" He collapsed into the other chair, slouching back and yawning.

"Reno, what do you know about the Ayle?" Tifa asked him, his eyes widened slightly, he had never, ever been asked about the Ayle before, but he knew enough about them. He was one.

"What do you wanna know about the Ayle for? No one cares or even knows of them outside of Cosmo Canyon, how do you know about them?"

"Nanaki." That was all Cloud had to say. Well, yes Nanaki would know about the Ayle. Nanaki's hometown was in the Canyon. He sighed and answered, there was nothing secret about them and he was keen to get to the point of this; who was this 'Jasper'.

"The Ayle are a sort of tribe of people who live in the Cosmo Canyon. They are self sufficient and live in a similar way to pack animals like lions. Obviously, if you know about the Ayle, you can see I descend from them. They all have red hair and these red birthmark things I have." Reno had a curved red line beside each eye running from half an inch away from his eyes, curving down the top of his cheeks half an inch below his eyes. The mark of the Ayle. He had never seen another Ayle besides his own mother in his entire life. She had said to him she was the only Ayle to move away from the Canyon. She had left when Reno was barely a foetus; wanting a better life for her baby and for herself. She never found a better life, just a different one.

"You wear your hair in the traditional Ayle style, feathered and shortish except a tail of long hair tied up. You also wear sand-goggles. These are both important things to the Ayle. Why is that Reno?" Reno shrugged, not looking at her. Why were they asking him about the Ayle? He didn't like these questions.

"My mother wore her hair this way, and the goggles were hers…I guess that's why. Look, what's this all about? I may descend from The Ayle, but I am not an Ayle, I have lived in Midgar my entire life."

"Exactly. No other Ayle lives outside the Cosmo Canyon, is that right? You are the only living Ayle to not live in the Canyon?" Reno nodded vaguely "And there certainly are no other Ayle in Midgar, yes?"

"As far as I know yes. These questions are the dumbest questions I have ever been asked, and I've been asked a few. What have the Ayle got to do with the Indigo Children?" He had clenched his fists now, Rude always said he had a temper, but if they were going to ask him dumb questions like this, who could blame him for getting angry? He met Tifa's eye for a moment before looking away again. If she wasn't such a righteous little know-it-all she might be pretty hot. But all he could see was a little goody-two shoes who thought the world of herself for all her good causes. He hated people like that.

"Nothing much. It's what you have to do with the Ayle that interests us. But enough about them for now. The next questions are rather personal I'm afraid, but it's important, we'll fill you in after you've answered, we need unbiased answers." Tifa had pulled a file out of her bag that had been lying on the floor; she began looking through it, not looking up to the perplexed redhead.

"At what age did you loose your virginity?" She asked coldly as if she was not enjoying having to ask.

"What? What the hell are you asking me that for?"

"Just answer the question Turk." Cloud snapped impatiently. Reno paused before answering

"Oh, I dunno, fourteen I think." Yes. He remembered, fourteen, nearly fifteen. Tracey Fosters.

"And have you led an active sex life since?" Reno rolled his eyes but nodded anyway, it wasn't a secret. He was more surprised that they had to ask.

"When did you join the Turks?" Talk about random questions, he also recognised the file Tifa was holding as a Shinra employee file. She already knew the answers to these questions, it was his file she was holding.

"Seventeen. I started my training age fifteen, nearly sixteen." He answered with a bored tone of voice ignoring Tifa as she raised a brow, pushing her lips together in disapproval.

"Surely that's illegal, taking a kid in and training him as a Turk! Surely!" Cloud looked over to her and shook his head

"Tifa, stay on track with the questions." She shook her head again, staring at the file trying to concentrate on the questions rather than her outrage at the young age Reno had been taken in by the Turks.

"Okay. Last question: Reno, have you ever had unprotected sex?" He flushed red. He knew how far back that file went; he remembered the first general medic tests and the results. So yeah, he had been riddled with more STD's than you could count on your fingers, but he had been young and ignorant.

"You do know that you should always be protected Reno, you're lucky HIV is not on this list of diseases, it's _gross_, seriously."

"Skip to the point." He snapped, the red glow in his face not subsiding by much.

"According to this report at every medic check up you came in with more diseases, in the end they issued you with free protection. The steady stream of diseases did not subside until you were eighteen." He gritted his teeth in anger, clenching his fists, he hated being humiliated.

"If you've called me here for your own personal entertainment, I suggest you equip yourselves with armour before I get really angry." Tifa stared at him intensely, shaking her head like he was a naughty child.

"You know what else condom's protect you from Reno, other than STD's? Pregnancy."

"In case you didn't realise, I'm not a woman and not pregnant." He slouched back down, anger written on his face.

"You have an eight year old son Reno." The words didn't register at first. What? _What? _No.

"I thought of you the first time I saw Jasper, when he came into 7th Heaven. The shock of reddy-brown hair, the Ayle birthmarks. I didn't know about the Ayle, but when Red saw him he told me all about The Ayle and about how you were Ayle, the only Ayle not living in Cosmo Canyon. We asked Jasper about his father. His father had been a one-night stand that caused his mother and her husband to divorce. Someone who worked with her at Shinra. Well, on all the Shinra employee records you're the only one who is Ayle. You also led a varied sex life rarely using protection. You would have been seventeen at the time of conception." She said this with only a small amount of sympathy in her voice. "For Gaia's sake Reno, why do you look so shocked? I expect there's plenty of little Reno's running about that you don't know about!"

"Shit!…no you've made a mistake." He had jumped up and headed towards Cloud's mini bar, to which Tifa grimaced.

"I wish we had, you're not fit to be a father…" She sighed, as much as she hated Reno, he had to know the full truth sooner rather than later, "Reno… the biggest problem is that Jasper's mother recently died. He has no other adult relations. You're his only kin. There's a big chance you may have to be fully responsible for his upbringing." Reno almost tripped over as he leant down to the mini bar, he steadied himself and just stared straight ahead, crouching at the mini bar fridge as if he were indecisive over which drink to pick. Ok, he could accept that he had fathered a child. Tifa was right, he had been an idiot when he was younger and preferred unprotected sex. But this was too much; he couldn't even contemplate having to actually be the sole carer for a child, or a carer at all to a child. He was Reno of the Turks, ruthless killer and as far as he was concerned, respected ladies man.

He slumped back into the chair, pulling the top off his beer with his teeth, spitting it out and gulping the cold liquid down. Cloud stood and left the room, only to return with a small boy. Jasper's hair wasn't quite as red as his fathers, it had hints of brown in it, but those twin red birthmarks were identical to Reno's, as were the blue-green of his bright eyes. His features almost exactly matched those of Reno's when he had been that age. He closed his eyes upon seeing the boy standing there, staring at him. He couldn't deny it now.

"He's also a very powerful Indigo Child.

"Jasper. This is Reno; we will double check when we get back to Midgar with blood checks, but you can see he's most likely your father." Cloud gestured to Tifa to come over to him, she smiled down to Jasper and tried her hardest not to smirk at Reno as she went over to Cloud.

"We'll leave you two alone for a moment." With that the two AVALANCHE members left. Jasper walked over to the bed, staring at Reno's slumped posture and the way he was gulping that beer like he hadn't drunk liquid for weeks. Reno cautiously got up and took another beer from the mini bar.

"…Beer?" He offered to Jasper with a weak voice. The boy shook his head, sitting on the edge of the bed. Reno nodded vaguely "Right…yeah, kids don't like beer do they?" He collapsed back into the chair, wanting to wake up from this horrible nightmare.

---

"Reno's gone!" Yuffie came into the bar flustered, she had gone to see how he was after Jasper had returned to working on keeping a telepathic link on the Indigo Children. Reno had said he needed some rest after the Petrify spell and in light of recent discoveries that he had to think over. But his room was empty of the red haired Turk and his belongings.

Tifa stood, pummelling her fist into her open hand with a large frown.

"The jerk! I knew it, I knew he'd run…Oh, poor Jasper, your father is just.."

"I knew perfectly well that that poor excuse for a father would be likely to run from his responsibilities. I'd rather brave it bringing myself up than have _that _try and drag me up into adulthood." Everyone stared at the boy with open mouths, his Indigo Child intelligence was a little freaky sometimes, he stared back at everyone with a scowl upon his face.

"I never expected my father to be a great man, he slept with my mother, let her get pregnant and never saw her again, she never spoke about him, I know it was because she wasn't proud of her miss spent night with him."

"Marlene never says stuff in such long words, you're like a pint sized professor or somethin'!" Barret said in wonder, although Tifa could tell he preferred the cute innocence of his own daughter. Barret had been looking after Jasper since he came to 7th Heaven; he was rather taken with him, as was Marlene, who had stayed in Midgar with Red XIII. Until now he and Jasper had stayed in Cloud's hotel room puzzling over the route the Indigo Children had been taking towards Mt Corel.

"Anyway, he's not far away. I sensed him slip out and go all the way to the airfield where the plane and highwind are. He stayed there a while, but came back again. He's somewhere across town, I think it's a bar." Jasper muttered, looking at the map in front of him that had little polished stones on them representing the path of the Children he could sense.

"It's Reno; it's going to be a bar." Elena laughed softly, trying to hide her concern for him. "I'll go and see if he's ok." She stood and walked over to the door. Tifa called out;

"Elena, we will be ready to go in an hour. If he's coming with us then make sure he's at the airfield by three ok?" Elena nodded and slipped away.

The town was quiet after the test; most of the bars were closed. She was just about to give up hope when she came across a pub with the door open and a rickety OPEN sign hung in the window. Elena straightened her hair and went in, looking about for signs of Reno. It wasn't difficult to spot him. He was the only customer in there. He was sat at the bar, slumped over it with a glass of whisky in his hand. She sat next to him, saying nothing until the bar man came over to take her order.

"I'll have a cola please." Reno looked up for a moment, before burying his head into the bar and left arm again. "Are you ok Reno?" She asked after paying for the cola.

"Everything's SHIT!" She raised her brows and took a sip of cola.

"That bad huh? We were worried when we found you gone. Jasper said you went all the way to the planes, but came back." Reno shook his head, still not looking up.

"Reno. It's not so bad."

"What? What do you mean 'it's not so bad'? I have an eight year old son and it's my responsibility to look after him Elena!" She bit her lower lip, looking down into her cola. Reno rarely sounded so serious, so upset. All she could do was shrug. He sat up a little, looking downwards.

"His mother died of cancer. I don't remember her, I've slept with most of the many Shinra secretaries they've had in the time I've worked there. I…shit 'Lena, I can't even look after myself, let alone a kid." She placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, he was right, he was not fit to be a father, she felt for him in some ways. But he had got into this mess himself.

"I was just gunna leave, in the long run he'd be better off without me than with me. But I couldn't. Don't ask me why, I just couldn't." He looked miserable, he felt miserable.

"Something will come up. For now there's the Indigo Children to contend with. You're still on this mission Reno. They are leaving in less than an hour. You're still coming with us aren't you?" He thought about it for a while, downing his whisky and asking for another.

"I suppose I may as well finish it, I don't wanna end up not getting paid after everything that I've gone through for this damned mission. But that kid…I…Geez, I just dunno…Elena, kids are weird. They don't like beer." Elena shot him a despairing look

"No. No Reno, they don't. Maybe we can find him a good home when we return to Midgar." She gently took his arm and pulled him up; he came with her, out of the pub and back to the hotel.

TBC….

_Authors note: For all those who've read Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' (or some of the books, there are loads!), I thought I should make reference to the striking similarities between the Aiel and Reno's looks, so there you have it, FF7 Cosmo Canyon Ayle. _

_If you've not read 'Wheel of Time' you probably don't know what I'm talking about. I recommend it if you have the stamina to read a 10 book story…shish! (the Aiel have red hair styled in the exact same way as Reno, (and they live in a Canyon), it came way before FF7 so I guess the creator either thinks like Robert Jordan, or stole the idea) _

_Thanks to all my readers and reviewers! I hope people aren't too miffed by the Jasper/Reno thing, don't worry; it won't really change the personality of our lovable rouge! He'll probably carry on being as irresponsible as ever. _


	11. The Great One

11

The Great One

Jasper could sense that The Indigo Children had stopped in the western mountains near Mt Corel, they had set off an hour ago, the highwind was large enough to fit everyone so they had decided it was best to leave the other Shinra plane on the island. Jasper suggested they keep their presence unknown to the Children so they decided on the highwind as the best transport to do that. Cid's co-pilot had stuck around and was happy to pilot them there.

"I'm lucky I'm powerful really, I can block them off so they can't sense me. Jennin's the one nearest to having as much power as me, but her mind feels occupied and weighed down right now. She hasn't noticed me following." He explained to Barret, who it seemed he clung to the most, perhaps it was Barret's fatherly outlook from bringing Marlene up that made Jasper go to Barret with all his problems, information and questions. This suited Reno down to the ground, it meant he didn't have to do anything. He just sat in a sulk on the same chair he had sat on during the journey to Mideel. Elena thought Reno's son was twice as mature as his father.

Yuffie came and sat on the floor near Reno, looking up to him with that mischievous grin that made Reno want to use his Electro-Mag rod on her.

"What do you want brat?" He asked when she didn't go away. She looked over to Jasper who was having a piggyback from Barret, he squealed with joy as he was carried this way and that by the large black man.

"Your son is real cute." Reno gave her a fake-smile,

"Yeah, well, he takes after his father doesn't he." He said bitterly. She couldn't keep down a snigger, which just aggravated the Turk further. "Piss off and leave me alone for once brat." Yuffie stood up, digging deep within her pockets for something. She thrust a wallet and PHS into his hands. He looked down at them and saw they were his, the ones that the Indigo Children had taken.

"Where did you get these?" He asked her in semi-amazement, Yuffie smiled

"I went back to their town earlier to get my materia back. Well…the materia had gone, but your wallet and PHS was still there along with my PHS and purse." He blinked, looking up to the young ninja in surprise for actually bothering to pick his stuff up as well as her own. She wasn't exactly the most selfless of people.

"Thanks…" He checked the wallet to see if he had any Gil left. Nope. Well, at least he had his Shinra ID and credit card still, along with all the membership cards to video stores and his discount vouchers he had got from 'Pisa Pizzas' for being their number one customer.

"Well… I guess you've been having a rough ride lately Turkey, so here you are. I'm only doing this coz I think you need a break though mind!" She handed him a wadge of Gil that had been in his wallet up until Yuffie had recovered it. She had already run off before he could thank her. For once in the last week he had got a nice surprise. He replaced the money into his wallet and put it back into the pocket it belonged in. He had a couple of messages on his phone from Rude, he listened to them and learned they were old ones, from before he and AVALANCHE had come.

"Reno, get out of Mideel!" Was all that was said in one message, the second elaborated a little, explaining about the 'test' and why he should get out of Mideel. He deleted the messages, sighing and pocketing the PHS.

They arrived in another hour and a half on the flat lands as close to the mountains that Jasper could sense the Indigo Children on as they could. It took an hour to walk far enough into the mountain range for them to be close and a further half hour until Jasper signalled that everyone should be quiet. The little boy went over to Barret and whispered that they were in the cave networks, and were preparing to put all their power into that Indigo materia that killed off people without the gene. The group silently stalked through the caves, all uneasy about how the outcome would pan out. Reno personally thought they hadn't a hope in hell, but he was beginning not to care anymore. Soon enough voices were heard, echoing off the walls. Reno unclipped his Electro-Mag rod from his belt and attached to his wristband, gripping the handle tightly. 'Oh man, what am I thinking? I've got a stick that can electrocute people; they have a huge stash of materia and are genetically advanced enough to be cleverer, stronger and more prepared than I am! Plus we're outnumbered a thousand to nine.' He thought to himself. At least he wasn't thinking about Jasper for a moment though. Sweat beaded up on his forehead as the peace was broken with;

"Intruders!" A feminine voice echoed, it was clearly Jennin's voice. All hell suddenly broke loose, kids running about everywhere brandishing weapons and casting spells, Reno suddenly wished he had that Protect Pendant. But somehow they _were_ being protected. He heard Jasper's voice call

"AVALANCHE and the Turks, stay within a ten metre radius of me! I am casting a protect spell on you. You must stay close enough though!" Reno raised his brow; maybe having a kid did have uses after all. He didn't have time to ponder on that though, as a kid with a spear poked towards him, it seemed as if Jasper's protection did not extend to physical attacks. It also only protected those Jasper wanted to protect. Yuffie had cast a fire spell on the kid with the spear, saving Reno from being skewed. He had no time to thank her, as another Child was thrusting a sword towards him, he dodged it and prodded the boy with his Electro-Rod. As he ran into the centre of the caves they had set up camp in, he looked up to a raised level of the cave, where the Indigo materia sat on a pile of rucksacks. Dale was stood up there with Jennin casting spells that bounced off Jasper's protection. Reno made his way through the din, jabbing his rod at kids with the power turned high, he was enjoying this far too much. Tifa was using her fists like only she could while Cloud swung that great sword of his this way and that, trying to not actually harm any kids, more bat them away and use it as a shield to arrows and bullets. Vincent was shooting straight at Dale; Jasper had said that Dale was the one they needed to get rid of, Dale, Jennin, Jak and maybe Nyra as they were the driving force of the Children, without them the Children were leaderless and would be easily controlled.

Barret had disappeared and the Turks were fighting off the Children more ruthlessly than the AVALANCHE members. Reno paused to see Yuffie stooping over something, not really helping, he grunted in annoyance at her inability to be useful and thrust his rod at another kid who wasn't attacking or anything; Reno just thought stunning the kids was a great way to direct his anger.

Jasper went up close to the indigo materia, casting powerful spells of all types, without needing the use of materia. Vincent was beside him, shooting up at Dale, who had cast a shield around him that Jasper was trying to break. His little face was set and concentrated as his arms stayed outstretched, a glow constantly lighting his hands. Jennin hit back at Jasper's shield using the same materia-less magic, but she couldn't quite break it.

In a sudden flash of red cape, Vincent broke up onto the higher level and grabbed Dale around the neck when he hadn't been watching the caped man, Barret had got up behind Jennin and was grabbing her too, making it easy work for Jasper and now Yuffie with her recovered materia to cast spells to block them any use of magic. So that's what Yuffie had been doing, recovering her materia. The others continued fighting the other kids back, sweat dripping down their cheeks.

Reno felt Jasper's Protect spell suddenly lift, but the Children had stopped attacking too, staring up at the higher level. He too looked up there, his blue-green eyes widening. A tall man with silver hair that Reno thought was Sephiroth at first was holding Jasper in a tight grip with a gun pressed against the small boys head. He looked terrified. Something snapped inside of Reno, that was his son up there with a gun to his little head.

"NO! Get away from him!" He broke into a full run, fear for his son's life filling him entirely. Everything had fallen silent; the only thing that moved was Reno, running hard towards the higher level with a pained look of determination and anger on his face. Tifa was shocked; she never knew the Turk had it in him to be so selfless. The tall silver haired man was not Sephiroth, but bore a striking resemblance to him, he wore a leather long coat and tight trousers. There was a long sword attached to his back, he looked young, maybe in his late teens.

"He's a clone!" Cloud whispered to Tifa desperately at a loss at what to do, if they moved they risked Jasper being shot.

The silver haired man looked towards Reno with a snide flash of self-satisfaction "Stop now or the child is dead!" Reno only just heard what he said. He came to a halt just before the small cliff like face that he had been planning to climb; it was only a few metres higher than the lower level.

"Let go of Dale." The clone insisted to Vincent in a hard voice. His green eyes flashing greedily as Vincent did as he had asked. Reno's heart was pumping fast and hard, his mind reeling, Jasper was still being held at gunpoint. Was there anything he could do that wouldn't endanger the boy?

"Dale, the materia. It is time." Dale simpered and leant down to the materia on the backpacks. "Release Jennin." The clone ordered, Barret did so with a bitter look on his face, Jennin broke free and ran over to the orb, next to Dale. "Nyra and Jak, here." The silver man gestured with his head as his arms were occupied with holding the gun at Jasper's head; they complied, climbing up the cliff as Reno longed to do. Jennin looked over to the silver haired man with pleading eyes

"Please Great One. Let the boy go. He is strong. We will need him." The man hesitated before bringing the butt of the gun down onto the boy's head, knocking him out

"Jasper!" Reno shouted, the man had walked away from him now, over to the materia, watching over the four adult Indigo Children as they prepared themselves. Reno had started scrambling up the cliff face now that his son's head was not pressed up against the barrel of a gun. He ran over to him and gathered him into his arms, checking he was ok. He looked so young there, in his arms, his stomach fluttered as he looked down on him. He was a beautiful kid.

A sudden blinding light filled his eyes; he gritted his teeth, hugging Jasper protectively to him as he expected the same soaring pain as before. But it didn't come. He opened his eyes and saw the Silver haired man lying on the floor, blood quickly spilling out around him. Jennin stood over him with a gun, she was breathing heavily, shaking her head with a mad look in her eyes. Dale looked up to her, anger shaking through him

"Bitch! Bitch! You fucking bitch!"

"I couldn't do it Dale, I couldn't kill all those people. It's wrong Dale. I…I couldn't!" She sobbed; Dale clenched his fists, a ball of magic appearing in his hand, Reno gasped as he guessed what Dale was going to do to her. He could see a glow surround Yuffie as Dale's own attack was beginning to leave his body and slam into Jennin. Yuffie was too late; her attack had not properly formed as the strong Ultima spell rocketed towards Jennin. Before it hit her Reno saw her turn the gun on her boyfriend and shoot him, right between the eyes, he fell slumped as the Ultima spell hit Jennin. Reno clamped his eyes closed, he could not help but feel a surge of regret at not being able to protect her, help her. He hoped to Gaia she wasn't dead. As the light subsided he could see she was sprawled out on the hard cold floor. Yuffie's fire spell hit the dead body of Dale causing a horrible smell to fill their noses.

Silence pressed against shocked ears as the echoes of Jennin's last shot faded out. A figure had started to climb the cliff, it was Jez and he had a gun in his hand, his face twisted in anger

"This is all your fault redhead, first you ruin my home by sleeping with my mother, then you destroy my new home. You and your shitty little son, I hate both of you." He pulled a gun out from a holster at his side. Yuffie moved again, cautiously placing a hand on her green orb, waiting to see if this boy was actually going to harm Jasper before casting anything. She could see Vincent tense up near by Jez as well, ready in case the boy wanted to do anything with that gun he was nervously gripping.

"NO! Don't hurt him, kill me, but please, he's your brother, don't hurt him!" Reno begged, wide eyed and desperate. He was just a child, he had a whole life ahead of him, he could do things differently from the way his father had. By the time the kid was twenty-five he could be happy. He was just a kid.

Jez laughed bitterly and cocked the gun, pointing it at Jasper's head, Reno doubled over his son protecting him, his eyes clamped shut. The bang echoed loudly in his ears, but no pain came, another shot was fired, but still no pain, he hoped to Gaia that he was covering enough of Jasper's vital parts that none of those bullets had hit him. He dared to look up a few moments after the third shot was fired. Jez lay on the floor dead with Vincent standing over him, pointing his gun at the lifeless form. Vincent had jumped onto him when he saw that the boy was seriously going to shoot his younger brother, causing Jez's shot to be miss aimed. The second shot had also been diverted by Vincent hitting into him a second time The third bullet had been issued by Vincent when he had been sure that Jez was intent on murdering Reno and his son. Once again a still silence resounded around the cave, almost inviting anyone who wanted to fight back to get it over with now. But everything stayed still for now.

Cloud came up to the higher level and looked down to all the frightened children, some were sobbing, hugging onto one another.

"I'm Cloud. I'm here to help you, we all are. We didn't want you to kill all those people. You are all children and should be in school, playing games, having fun, not killing millions of people. Now, listen up…" Cloud and Tifa explained to them all that they could find them parents to adopt them, and until then they could stay at 7th Heaven with her and AVALANCHE. It turned out that a vast majority had parents that Dale had encouraged them to run away from. The few orphans agreed to stay with Tifa. It was a difficult job trying to organise the hundreds of kids that were down there in an orderly way. Nyra and Jak, the two adults who had chosen to not fight back explained that they had never wanted this; they both pleaded that they would do anything to help the children get back to normal lives. Nyra showed AVALANCHE to the Chocobo's and offered to shepherd the kids wherever their homes were. In the end Tifa, Yuffie, Barret, Rude, Elena, Nyra and Vincent took a chocobo each and took the non-Midgar kids back to their homes. All those bound for Midgar went along with Cloud and Reno to the Highwind. Jennin was alive, she was badly hurt and in need of hospital help. Jak hoisted her up into his arms and carried her, walking beside Cloud as they made their way to the highwind.

Jasper was still unconscious; Reno carried him out of the mountains, gripping him softly. A young child walked beside him all the way, looking up to him.

"Are you Jasper's dad?" he asked. Reno was too tired to deny it

"Yes."

"Wow! I wish I had a dad as cool as you are!" The Turk shook his head solemnly

"No you don't, trust me kid."

To be concluded…

_A/N: I didn't realise that I had not enabled anonymous reviews, but now I have. So if there are any anonymous readers out there you can now review. Thanks so much to my reviewers and readers (but more thanks go to my reviewers!) I'm, glad to know there are some Wheel of Time readers out there; I'm on book 6, Lord of Chaos right now. A friend of mine recommended the story to me after I explained my original story idea to him. It turns out my story is a little like the Wheel of Time. I dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing!…_

_The next chapter of Indigo Children is the last and very short, it's more of an epilogue actually. I'll hopefully post it asap._

_Izzia. _


	12. Epilogue

12

Epilogue

Reno hated 7th Heaven, he could smell the self-righteousness of the place seeping through the walls. It sickened him. He had asked, _begged_, Elena or Rude to come, but they shook their heads and said he had to sort it out for himself. He leant back on a wooden chair, whisky in hand and shadows under his eyes marking the sleepless nights that had plagued him. He watched the kid, _his_ kid, out of the corner of his eye. He was sat on the floor next to Marlene, keeping her happy by being a guest at her tea party. Jasper had even invited his father to the tea party, but Marlene shook her head and refused to have "That big bully" join the fun. 'Thank Gaia.' Reno thought to himself bitterly. He hated kids.

"Yo!" Barett came in, Cloud beside him and Tifa behind, Reno sighed in relief, they must have come to a decision.

Three days had passed since the Indigo Children mess had ended, Cloud was pissed about there still being a clone around, despite Tifa insisting that he was probably the last and he was dead, so it was fine. But Cloud was still tense about it. Jennin regained consciousness fast, part of being an Indigo Child, or that's what Nyra said. But her mind did not recover so easily, the deaths of Dale and her family haunted her to an extent that she had been admitted into New Midgar's home for the mentally ill. Reno felt for her, the memory of the way she made him feel refusing to fade. Nyra and Jak had gone off together, on friendly terms. It became apparent that Dale had been a very powerful Child, he could manipulate people into thinking he was right, he completely brainwashed them. They were really decent people when they were able to think for themselves. As for the comas and deaths that had plagued Mideel enough to call Reno and Elena out there in the first place: They were caused by smaller tests Dale had tried. Mideel was slowly getting back to usual according to their grateful messages to The Shinra.

Neither Nyra nor Jak knew much about the clone, or why he had wanted the Indigo Children to do what they were going to do, Cloud suspected it was something to do with Sephiroth's desire to wipe out life that wasn't the Ancients. The Indigo Children were the new Ancients. They couldn't be sure beyond guesses though and decided it was best forgotten for now.

As for the issue surrounding Reno and his son; that had been under discussion for the longest. One minute Reno would say that no way was he looking after him. The next he was saying that maybe he'd give fathering a go. Reno just couldn't decide. His lifestyle was not one that would accept a child, yet he was very reluctant to give it up and buy a proper house in a better neighbourhood nearer the boy's school.

"Reno, we think it's best if Barret take care of Jasper…" Tifa said quietly, but Reno could tell she was enjoying it really, that she longed to just stick out her tongue and go 'nah, nah, ne-nah nah.' But he didn't care, that was what he had wanted to hear, he hated kids. Barret nodded and sat down, looking over to Jasper and Marlene. Jasper looked up, his blue-green eyes shining in the light, and came and sat on Barret's knee, staring across at his father with a blank expression.

"Did you head that Jasper, I'll be your dad for the moment." Barret bobbed him up and down on his muscular knee, smiling.

"Good. I like it here, I didn't like Reno's house one bit." Jasper had been referring to Reno by his name rather than 'dad' almost as a sign of how little Jasper thought of the red-head, Reno had adopted the name 'twirp' for Jasper as a retaliation, he thought it suited him.

"Good-good. Can I go now?" Reno sighed, sitting up in readiness to leave.

"Reno, you are still Jasper's father, nothing can change that, and one day you both might regret it if you don't see one another regularly." Tifa said, fiddling with a ribbon that had been lying about. "So, every other weekend you'll come and spend the day with Jasper, either on a Saturday or Sunday, whichever is more suitable. Got it?" From the tone of her voice there was no use arguing, but the weekends were his time and he would certainly not look forward to having to visit the boy.

"All right. Fine. Whatever." He snapped, standing up and stretching.

"So, not this weekend coming, but the one after you come here at about eleven on Saturday?"

"Sunday." Reno insisted, he'd never wake up by eleven on a Saturday morning, Sunday wasn't much more likely. Tifa nodded, annoyance at Reno's uncaring attitude towards the whole thing. Reno went over to Jasper and ruffled his hair.

"Bye twirp." Was all he said before he left the building with one destination in mind: The Pub.

THE END

_Thanks to everyone who read this, and extra special thanks to those who reviewed_

_I would be very grateful for reviews if you managed to read it all, good, bad, whatever. I've written a few more shorter stories with Reno, The Turks, Jennin and Jasper in 'em so I'll post them as I get them edited and polished up. _

_Cheers for reading _

_So, until next time: bye! _

_Izzia. _


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